Nigerian digital payments startup Paga is set to expand to Ethiopia, Mexico and Philipines after it raised $10 million in series B2 funding led by the Global Innovation Fund. Other round participants include Goodwell, Adlevo Capital, Omidyar Network, and Unreasonable Capital.
TechCrunch reports that as part of the $10 million round (which brings Paga’s total funding up to $35 million), Global Innovation Partners will take a board seat.
Founded by Tayo Oviosu in 2012, Paga has created a multi-channel network and platform to transfer money, pay bills, and buy things digitally that’s already serving 9 million customers in Nigeria—including 6000 businesses. All of whom can drop into one of Paga’s 17,167 agents or transfer funds from one of Paga’s mobile apps.
Since inception, the startup has processed 57 million transactions worth $3.6 billion, according to Oviosu.
Paga products work on iOS, Android, and basic USSD phones using a star, hashtag option. The company has remittance partnerships with the likes of Western Union and Moneytrans and allows for a third-party integration of its app.
TechCrunch added that Paga looks to go head to head with regional and global payment players, such as PayPal, Alipay, and Safaricom’s M-Pesa, according to Oviosu.
“We are not only in a position to compete with them, we’re going beyond them,” he said of Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile money product. “Our goal is to build a global payment ecosystem across many emerging markets.”
According to TechCrunch, Paga will use the Series B2 to grow its core development team of 25 engineers across countries and continents. It will also continue its due diligence on global expansion—though no hard dates have been announced.
