MFS Africa Receives More Funding, Shooting Its Series C to $200M

MFS Africa, a digital payments network has secured $100 million in equity and debt, additional funding that takes its Series C round to $200 million. The round was led by African investment manager Admaius Capital Partners.

The fintech also received capital from new investors: Vitruvian Partners and AXA Investment Managers. Debt financing came from Stanbic IBTC Bank, a Lagos-based bank, and Symbiotic.

According to the founder and CEO of MFS Africa, Dare Okoudjou, it is the strength of their business model that unleashes and simplifies economic activities across the continent through any-to-any interoperability.

“Our multiple initiatives and solutions are providing access to Africans, at home and in the diaspora. We are building MFS Africa into a safe, sound, scalable and high-impact pan-African payment infrastructure that will facilitate Africa’s rapidly growing commerce, both now and in the future,” he said.

The new investment will be utilized to achieve four objectives. First, continue its expansion plans across Africa. The firm also plans to further integrate into the global digital payment ecosystem, then expand into Asia and create cross-border payments synergies with Africa via a joint venture with LUN Partners and, finally, carry out its growth plans for BAXI, a startup it acquired late last year.

Founded in 2010, MFS Africa develops value-added services for mobile wallets and provides alternatives for remittance and money transfers, micro-lending, micro-insurance, micro-savings, and payments. The company connects mobile money systems to each other and to money transfer organizations, banks, and other financial institutions, enabling money remittances to and from mobile money accounts.

The company is also known for its acquisition-led expansion plays, just last week  it acquired U.S.-based Global Technology Partners (GTP) in a cash-and-shares deal worth $34 million. The Africa-focused and London-based company connects over 320 million mobile money wallets across 35+ African countries and 700 corridors. But despite these connections across borders, millions of Africans can’t use their mobile money accounts to pay for subscription-based services run by international companies such as Netflix and Amazon.

The fintech has hired Meghan Taylor, an ex-partner at Boston Consulting Group, who is now its chief of staff, and Julian Adkins, ex-Africa CFO at telecom operator Millicom, who operates as the company’s group chief financial officer with a bid to chart its next growth phase.