Shares

MFS Africa, a digital payments network, has raised Ksh. 11 billion (USD 100 million) through an equity and debt financing round led by AfricInvest FIVE.

The fundraising follows a series of acquisitions and investments in other African fintechs including the recently announced acquisition of Baxi in Nigeria.

AfricInvest FIVE co-led the round with existing investors Goodwell Investments and LUN Partners. CommerzVentures, Allan Gray Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest also joined the round as new investors. ShoreCap III returned as an existing investor with other funds. Providers of debt financing included Lendable and Norsad.

MFS Africa is expanding operations across the continent. To this end, the company has opened new offices in Nairobi, Abidjan, Kampala, Kinshasa and Lagos, in addition to London which acts as its new headquarters.

Part of the new funding has been earmarked to continue strengthening the company’s governance, risks and compliance (GRC) functions as well as its treasury and liquidity pool.

Commenting on the latest funding, Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa said, “This round of funding marks the beginning of the next phase in our growth. We greatly appreciate the renewed and continued confidence in us by our longstanding investors LUN Partners, Goodwell Investments, ShoreCap III and others. We are also delighted to welcome our new investors AfricInvest, CommerzVentures, Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest on board.”

Also commenting the investment, Julius Tichelaar, Partner at AfricInvest FIVE said, “MFS Africa 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.”

Currently, the MFS Africa hub connects over 320 million mobile money wallets through its network of over 180 mobile money schemes, banks, money transfer operators, and over 250 global enterprises.