Fintech Company Moniepoint, located in Nigeria, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $110 million in fresh capital from investors, including Google, to expand its digital payments and banking services throughout Africa.
Since its founding in 2015, Moniepoint has expanded to provide personal banking services in addition to infrastructure and payment solutions for banks and other financial organizations.
Existing investors Development Partners International, based in London, and Lightrock, a private equity firm, sponsored the most recent funding round.
Laptops 1000Verod Capital and Google’s Africa Investment Fund were new investors.
The fresh capital valued Moniepoint at more than $1 billion, making it a “unicorn”—a word used to describe software companies valued at $1 billion or more.
With the help of the additional funding, Moniepoint would expand its operations throughout Africa and create a comprehensive business platform.
“This platform will include services such as digital payments, banking, foreign exchange (FX), credit, and business management tools, making it a one-stop shop for business solutions,” Moniepoint explained.
Nigeria’s more than 200 million citizens, many of whom still lack access to banking and other financial services, are driving the continent’s fastest-growing fintech business.
In August of last year, Moniepoint began providing personal banking services.
According to the fintech, it handles more than 800 million transactions every month, totaling more than $17 billion.
