Wapi Pay, a Kenyan startup has raised Ksh. 239 Million in pre-seed funding to scale up global payments and remittances between Africa and Asia. Making international transfers faster, easier and much cheaper.
The investors for the funding round included EchoVC & China based global fund MSA Capital, who have invested in domestic Asian unicorns such as Meituan and NIO, and international unicorns such as Nubank and Klarna. Additional investors include Kepple Africa Ventures. The existing investors are Future Hub, Gobi Ventures and Transsion Holding.
Currently, traders have to endure high remittances fees of up to 15% of the amount and a waiting period of up to five days. They are also exposed to the high risk of consistent reversals due to unmatched instructions. However, with Wapi Pay the cost reduces to below 3% and the same day payout.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive region to send money to and out, according to the World Bank, with the average cost of sending $200 being 8.02% of the principal amount compared with 4.64% for South Asia, the lowest cost globally.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive region to send money to and out, according to the World Bank, with the average cost of sending $200 being 8.02% of the principal amount compared with 4.64% for South Asia, the lowest cost globally.
The startup founded by Paul Ndichu and Eddie Ndichu is headquartered in Nairobi but registered in Singapore. It is currently in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Taiwan and Vietnam where it is working with local banks and platforms.
Eddie Ndichu Co-Founder & CEO Wapi Pay had this to say, “These funds will help Wapi Pay diversify our products range and drive growth so that we can evolve remittances into real-time global cross-border payments, starting with Africa and Asia. All while minimising the cost of transactions, it needs to be as easy as sending M-PESA. He added that, “Wapi Pay bypasses traditional payment networks, optimizing efficiency and cost for our customers. Users choose the delivery channels they want such as Bank to Bank, Wallet to Wallet, Bank to Wallet and Wallet to Bank options to transfer funds as well as make merchant payments, with settlement done within 24 hours.”
Wapi Pay targets to process Kshs. 54 Billion in remittances by the end of 2022, grow the number of registered suppliers and beneficiaries in Asia to 100,000; and sign up at least 500,000 merchants, traders and businesses in Africa.