MFS Africa raises additional equity and debt capital to take its Series C to $200M – Nob6

Pan-African digital funds community MFS Africa has raised $100 million in fairness and debt, extra funding that takes its Sequence C spherical to $200 million. African funding supervisor Admaius Capital Companions led the brand new spherical.

Traders from its first Sequence C spherical like AfricInvest FIVE and CommerzVentures doubled down whereas the fintech additionally obtained capital from new traders: Vitruvian Companions and AXA Funding Managers. Debt financing got here from Stanbic IBTC Financial institution, a Lagos-based financial institution, and Symbiotic.

Per MFS Africa’s assertion, the brand new funding will enable it to attain 4 targets. First, proceed its growth plans throughout Africa. It’s going to additionally assist it additional combine into the worldwide digital fee ecosystem, then increase into Asia and create cross-border funds synergies with Africa through a three way partnership with LUN Companions and, finllay, perform its development plans for BAXI, a startup it acquired late final yr. 

These plans mirror what founder and CEO Dare Okoudjou informed Nob6 final November when the corporate introduced its first $100 million tranche. On the time, the Baxi acquisition was nonetheless pending approval from the Central Financial institution of Nigeria, the nation’s apex financial institution. Not solely has the acquisition been authorized, BAXI now possesses two licenses to function within the nation: The Cost Service Resolution Supplier (PSSP) and Cost Terminal Service Supplier (PTSP) licenses. The PSSP license permits BAXI to construct gateways that course of funds for third-party retailers, and the PTSP license offers BAXI the go-ahead to deploy its point-of-sale terminals for company banking. 

MFS Africa, recognized for its acquisition-led growth performs, simply final week acquired U.S.-based World Know-how Companions (GTP) in a cash-and-shares deal price $34 million. The Africa-focused and London-based firm connects over 320 million cell cash wallets throughout 35+ African international locations and 700 corridors. However regardless of these connections throughout borders, hundreds of thousands of Africans can’t use their cell cash accounts to pay for subscription-based companies run by worldwide corporations similar to Netflix and Amazon.

GTP is a developer of pay as you go and cell fee software program. In keeping with PitchBook, its pay as you go and cell fee platform integrates a number of pay as you go playing cards with a single checking account and permits customers to make pay as you go funds for on-line procuring and ATMs. The acquisition offers MFS Africa an avenue to problem pay as you go playing cards to its clients to allow them to carry out these duties — and in addition serve the African diaspora market within the U.S. 

“The energy of our enterprise mannequin is grounded on constructing an enduring digital infrastructure that unleashes and simplifies financial actions throughout the continent by way of any-to-any interoperability,” Okoudjou stated in an announcement. “Our a number of initiatives and options are offering entry to Africans, at dwelling and within the diaspora. We’re constructing MFS Africa right into a protected, sound, scalable and high-impact pan-African fee infrastructure that may facilitate Africa’s quickly rising commerce, each now and sooner or later.” 

The fintech additionally highlighted its efforts in bringing in two hires to chart its subsequent development section: Meghan Taylor, an ex-partner at Boston Consulting Group, who’s now its chief of workers, and Julian Adkins, ex-Africa CFO at telecom operator Millicom, who operates as the corporate’s group chief monetary officer.