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Chipper Cash, Africa’s transnational fintech startup has recently secured a $30 million Series B funding round.
The round was led by Ribbit Capital alongside Jeff Bezos’s personal VC fund – Bezos Expeditions.
Founded in 2018 back in San Francisco, US by Ham Serunjogi (Kenya) and Maijid Moujaled (Ghana).
The fintech company provides mobile-based, charge-free, P2P payment services in these countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Similar to its P2P app, Chipper Cash runs Chipper Checkout. This app is merchant-focused but unlike Chipper Cash, it is a fee-based payment platform that creates revenue to assist its free mobile business.
With up to 3 million users signed up on its platform and processing an average of daily 80,000 transactions.
Chipper Cash has also attained monthly payments in value of $100 million, the CEO Ham Serunjogi confirmed.
The Serie B fundraised will be used in expanding its geographical reach and products.
The product expansion will involve investment services, enterprise payment solutions and cryptocurrency trading options.
According to Serunjogi, “We’ll always be a P2P financial transfer platform at our core. But we’ve had demand from our users to offer other value services, like purchasing cryptocurrency assets and making investments in stocks,”
The fintech startup recently added beta dropdowns on its app and website to enable users trade in bitcoin while investing in U.S stocks coming from Africa,
“We’ll launch [the stock product] in Nigeria first so Nigerians have the option to buy fractional stocks — Tesla shares, Apple shares or Amazon shares and others — through our app. We’ll expand into other countries thereafter,” Serunjogi added.
By the end of 2021, the fintech startup plans to extend its Series B funding for country expansion.
The backing of this funding by Jeff Bezos is a strong indication of the recent startup investment that has shone on the African startup ecosystem.
In recent years, Africa’s startup scene has enjoyed backings from Venture Capitalists and other investors, particularly from countries in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya.
African fintech companies have become the most funded startups in the ecosystem after securing an estimated $2 billion in VC.
Featured Image: Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, Founders of Chipper Cash
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