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African mobile payment fintech, OPay, has secured a $400million investment in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Other investors that participated in this round include DragonBall Capital (The Investment fund backed by Meituan), Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Redpoint China, and 3W Capital. The funding would be directed towards enhancing its market position in Nigeria, Egypt, and expansion throughout Africa and the Middle East.
This investment makes Opay Africa’s latest fintech unicorn with a $2billion valuation. Opay had previously raised $170million in Series A and Series B rounds on July 9, 2019, and November 18, 2019. SoftBank Group, through its venture capital arm, SoftBank Ventures Asia, had been one of the investors in Opay’s earlier rounds and has continually supported OPay’s growth initiatives through the years.
Opay would use the new funding to both reinforce its market position in Nigeria and Egypt, and fast-track its expansion to other countries in Africa and the Middle East, due to the two regions having the largest addition in registered accounts in absolute terms over the last five years, notably Africa’s dominant position with millions of active users across the continent and transaction value worth at staggering $490billion.

“At OPay, we always put our clients first, and we never stop upgrading our products and service to create long-term value for our clients. We will always keep our mission in mind, and fight to improve the financial efficiency in emerging markets through AI and other technological innovations. We want to be the power that helps emerging markets reach a faster economic development,” said Yahui Zhou, CEO of OPay.
Kentaro Matsui, Managing Director at SoftBank Group and former Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said, “OPay is the leading payments platform in Nigeria, using app-based technology to leapfrog legacy methods to pay for goods and services. 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. We are excited to partner with Yahui Zhou and the OPay team.”
Softbank Vision Fund 2 was established in 2019 to focus on AI-based technology. The investment in OPay marks the fund’s first investment in an African startup. It is managed by SoftBank Investment Advisers, a subsidiary of the SoftBank Group. SoftBank Group had raised the size of Vision Fund 2 to $30billion in May, with further plans to continue self-financing the project.
Opay is a one-stop mobile-based platform for payment, transportation, food & grocery delivery, and other important services in your everyday life. Millions of users rely on OPay every day to send and receive money, pay bills, and order food and groceries. With a passionate team, sophisticated mobile platform, and a fast-growing community of users, OPay is making financial services more efficient for millions of users and it starts with the ability to pay and have access to the right opportunities at the right time.
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