Grace Ashiru
Cross-border payment app for Africa According to a statement published with TechCabal, Chipper Cash is preparing to purchase Zambian fintech business Zoona Transactions International.
Chipper Cash, which has a self-reported user base of 5 million, will be able to expand its capabilities with new online services and a new agent network as a result of this acquisition. This is also part of the company’s Zambian expansion strategy.
Laura Kennedy, VP of Corporate Development at Chipper Cash, says that Chipper Cash will get “incredible innovation, a great partner network, complementary products and services, and talented in-country teams” from Chipper Cash’s purchase of Zoona.
Brett Magrath, the co-founder and CEO of Zoona, sees this acquisition as a way for the two companies to combine their skills to connect customers and businesses across the continent and become Africa’s first choice for financial services.
When Zoona was created in 2008, it pioneered the Zambian tech ecosystem by inventing the Tilt service, which allows individuals and businesses to pay and transfer to Zambian banks and mobile money providers via cash, its digital channel, or its network of over 450 interoperable agents.
Since it started, the fintech has handled more than $3 billion transactions. It started at the same time as the mobile money industry in Africa. In 2020, its Zambian company sold its business in Malawi to a payments company in Cape Town called Mukuru. This was done so the company could switch to a B2B model.
CEO Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, now the company’s President, started Chipper Cash in 2018 to offer free personal and cross-border payments to Africans.
Since then, it has gotten $300 million in funding from venture capital and is now worth $2.2 billion. Its services are offered in the UK, the US, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, and Kenya.
“By putting these companies under the Chipper umbrella, we can open up even more borders, bring quality financial help services to more countries, and connect more people across the continent,” Kennedy said.
Chipper Cash did not disclose the financial terms of the sale. The transaction is also subject to clearance by the appropriate authorities.
