African mobile-based platform OPay has announced it has raised a total of $120 million in a series B funding round.
With involvement from a range of investors such as Meituan-Dianping, DragonBall Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia, this acts as the second significant funding round in a year for the firm following its last funding round of $50 million in June.
Other participating firms include: GaoRong Capital, Source Code Capital, Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), Redpoint China, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital China and GSR Ventures.
“OPay will facilitate the people in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and other African countries with the best fintech ecosystem that Africa has ever seen, paired with the inclusion of daily use services such as transportation and delivery,” commented Yahui Zhou, CEO of OPay.
“We see ourselves as a key contributor to expanding financial inclusion in Africa, and helping local businesses and workforces to thrive from opportunities created by new, digital business models. The capital raised will be allocated to African countries where local regulation is supportive of scientific and technological entrepreneurship in the fintech space.”
Launched in 2018, OPay is a mobile application that enables a variety of daily service such as mobile payments and transfers, ridesharing and food delivery all aimed at supporting the unbanked.
Claimed to be one of the fastest growing companies in Nigeria, OPay plans to use the funding raised to expand its offerings in Nigeria as well as enter new African market.
Since its Series A funding, OPay has tripled its active agents to over 140,000 and saw daily transaction volumes doubling to exceed $10 million per day.
Zhou continued: “OPay has become one of the most important providers of online consumer services in Nigeria, and is recognized widely among other players in the market.
“We are excited that GaoRong Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, BAI and Redpoint China are coming onboard in this round.
“The additional capital will allow OPay to speed up its expansion in mobile payment services and its growth in new verticals, further the strength of Opera’s brand and OPay’s emerging position will continue to benefit both companies and further escalate their ability to take leadership in several internet verticals across Africa.”
