FUNDING | Nigerian Leading Merchant Fintech, MoniePoint, Raises $110 Million in Series C Funding to Become Africa’s Latest Unicorn

Leading Nigerian fintech, MoniePoint, has raised $110 million in Series C funding led by Development Partners International’s African Development Partners (ADP) III fund to accelerate its growth across Africa.

Other participants in the round include:

• African private equity firm Verod Capital, and
• Existing investor, Lightrock.

To date, the startup has raised over $180 million since its launch in 2015.

According to the Financial Times, this latest funding round propels MoniePoint to unicorn status – a privately held company valued at $1 billion or more. The African fintech was last valued at nearly $800 million in a QED-led round two years ago.

Moniepoint joins an illustrious list of African unicorns including Flutterwave, Opay, Chippercash, and most recently, Egypt’s MNT Halan.

Founded as TeamApt in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, MoniePoint is a comprehensive financial ecosystem supporting 10 million businesses and individuals with streamlined payments, banking, credit, and business management solutions.

As Nigeria’s largest merchant acquirer, MoniePoint facilitates the majority of the country’s point-of-sale (POS) transactions. Through its subsidiaries, it processes $17 billion monthly for customers while maintaining profitable operations.

“Our mission is to help our customers solve their challenges by making our platform more innovative, transparent, and secure. The proceeds from this raise will speed up our efforts to drive financial inclusion and support Africa’s entrepreneurial potential.

I want to sincerely thank the entire MoniePoint team for making this achievement possible,” said Eniolorunda.

“We’ve been encouraged by the diversity and huge swathe of those who have found value in our platform and the services we provide in helping to create financial happiness. But, we’re just getting started, as it is just day one from here.”

The new funding follows a period of success for MoniePoint which has achieved significant operational and financial milestones while maintaining profitability.

2023 was a bumper year for the company as it closed the year with 5.2 billion transactions averaging 433 million monthly transactions across its web, mobile, card, and in-person payment channels, according to local reports.

The value of those transactions was over $150 billion, representing a 205% increase from 2022 when the startup processed 1.7 billion transactions worth over $100 billion. The volume and growth of MoniePoint makes it one of the fastest growing companies in Africa and one of the leading fintechs in Nigeria.

Already expanded into Kenya through the acquisition of local fintech, Kopokopo, this capital will fuel its expansion across Africa enabling the development of a comprehensive, seamlessly integrated platform for African businesses of all sizes.

The platform will offer a suite of services, including digital payments, banking, foreign exchange (FX), credit, and business management tools, positioning it as a one-stop shop for business solutions.