AfricInvest, Goodwell and LUN Partners co-lead MFS Africa financing round
AfricInvest’s Financial Inclusion Vehicle (AfricInvest FIVE) has announced its investment in MFS Africa as part of the company’s $100 million equity and debt financing round.
MFS Africa is a pan-African digital payment hub that enables low-cost payments across Africa and beyond, connecting more than 320 million mobile money wallets through its platform. Partnering with mobile money operators, banks, money transfer operators, large corporations and a growing number of SMEs, MFS is helping to create a pan-African payment infrastructure that provides payment and other financial services to under- and unbanked people across the continent.
AfricInvest FIVE led the funding round together with existing shareholders Goodwell Investments and LUN Partners who acted as co-leads, alongside other investors including CommerzVentures, Allan Gray Ventures and Endeavour. The funding will enable MFS Africa to hire talent across the continent and beyond, boost the company’s growth strategy by supporting a number of strategic initiatives including MFS Africa’s expansion in Nigeria through the acquisition of super-agent, Baxi and the continuing work to support SMEs by building and expanding the China-Africa and US-Africa payment rails.
Julius Tichelaar, a partner at AfricInvest FIVE commented, “MFS provides broad access to a large range of payment services for individuals and companies on the African continent, including remittance and trade-related financial services. This resonates well with AfricInvest FIVE’s financial inclusion strategy. Cross border payments remain an important challenge in many African markets today and MFS Africa is uniquely positioned to confront this. We are excited to join MFS Africa’s world-class management team on its mission and to support its growth journey.”
Patrick Herrmann, manager at AfricInvest FIVE added, “With AfricInvest’s footprint on the African continent and experience in the financial sector, the partnership with MFS creates an exciting opportunity. Supporting the organic and inorganic growth of the MFS platform will contribute to the shared vision of facilitating access to financial services for the African population.”
Dare Okoudjou, CEO and founder of MFS Africa said, “We knew from the onset that what we set out to do, making borders matter less for payment in, to and from Africa, was incredibly difficult. We knew it will require strong partnerships at each stage. The partnership with AfricInvest is one of these as we start MFS Africa 3.0. It not only gives access to a large pool of committed and patient capital but also to a team of passionate and like-minded professionals as well as an invaluable network of expertise and resources across the continent and beyond. We look forward to working with them in the years to come.”
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