Tech in Africa
Ghana’s top payment service Zeepay, has acquired a majority 51% stake in Mangwee Mobile Money from Zambia in a private placement deal. Verdant Capital acted as Zeepay’s financial M&A advisor in that deal. The merger forms an interesting development in Africa’s fintech industry, where two Indigenous African-owned fintech companies merge together to grow.
Zeepay is an iconic challenger fintech operating across 20 African countries. The company pays remittances into African mobile money wallets. It is regulated by Bank of Ghana – its EMI issuer, and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority – a Money Transfer Operator.
Andrew Takyi-Appiah the director and co-founder of Zeepay disclosed processing 2.4 million transactions in 10 months, valued at $400 million. The move opens up Zeepay to the Southern corridor. The merger means Zeepay can now access Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Malawi.
Zeepay Ghana is a fully owned mobile financial services company with a focus on digital rails that connects digital assets such as ATMs, mobile money wallets, bank accounts, and other digital tokens to international money transfer operators, subscriptions, airtimes, payments, and refugee payments.
Mangwee founders Bwalya Kampamba and Aston Njovu also expressed excitement in the new acquisition pointing out how it will leverage their award-winning mobile money products, i.e Remit Insurance, Visa-direct. Mangwee has been operating since 2018 and was first set up as a wallet for university students across Zambia.
