OPay, the Nigerian fintech startup, has raised $400 million investment round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2. This values the company at $2 billion.
Also participating are Sequoia Capital China, DragonBall Capital, the venture arm of Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan, Redpoint China, Source Code Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia and 3W Capital.
Founded in 2018, OPay is a mobile payment service and consumer platform for users to send and receive money, pay bills, and order food and groceries.
With a $3 billion monthly transaction according to Bloomberg, OPay plans to expand to more African countries as well as focus more on the Middle East.
In an emailed statement, OPay CEO Yahui Zhou said OPay “wants to be the power that helps emerging markets reach a faster economic development.”
“We believe our investment will help the company extend its offering to adjacent markets and replicate its successful business model in Egypt and other countries in the region,” said Kentaro Matsui, a SoftBank Group Corp. managing director and former managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, which oversees Vision Fund and Vision Fund 2.
OPay which ones planned to become a super app had to step back on this ambition as it shut down services like ORide, OCar, OFood, OMall, OTrade, OExpress and OBus due to government ban and Covid-19. This move no doubt helped the fintech focus fully focus on providing financial services to the underbanked as well as its agency business.
The new money is expected to further intensify the competition first in the Nigerian fintech space that already have the likes of Kuda, Paystack, Flutterwave, FairMoney and Chippercash among others and secondly the race to expand to other African countries.
