Kenya fintech Wapi Pay raises $2.2M to digitize Asia-Africa payments

Wapi Pay, a Kenyan startup with offices in Singapore and China has carved out a market by facilitating payments between the remittances worlds of Asia and Africa. The company was founded in 2019 by Eddie Ndichu, and Paul Ndichu who both provide a payment gateway for African businesses looking to send and receive money to Asia through their bank accounts and mobile money payment platforms.

As captured by TechCrunch, Wapi Pay says that works closely with local banks and platforms across India, the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore. The fintech startup is growing at over 396% YoY since 2019 and looks to continue that trend. By end of the year, Wapi Pay is looking to process over $500 million while increasing the African and Asian merchants and suppliers to 500,000 and 100,000 respectively.

This $2.2 million (Ksh 237M) pre-seed investment raised by Wapi Pay will be used to meet those targets and scale up those payments. To be precise, the company will engage regulators for licensing across Africa so as to scale, while also working on product and geographical expansion. The non-equity seed raise is one of the largest in East Africa and the greater continent at large. Venture firms that took part were China’s MSA Capital, EchoVC a pan-African focussed VC firm, Future Hub, Kepple Africa, and Gobi Ventures.

Wapi Pay Raises $2.2 million to Digitize Africa-Asia trade payments. https://t.co/I1e30ipGzm @EchoVC @msacapital #KeppleAfricaVentures #DigitalPayments #vc #WapiPay #WhereInTheWorldDoYouPay pic.twitter.com/R98DSsD3XB

— Wapi Pay (@wapi_pay) August 3, 2021