| Africa | JumiaPay records almost 50% YoY growth in Q3 2020. JumiaPay, the payment processing arm of e-commerce giant Jumia, has seen a 50% increase in YoY transaction volumes processed in Q3 2020. According to the recently released earnings report, JumiaPay processed €48m (~$57m) in Q1 2020 compared to €32m (~$38m) in 2019. Also, the transaction volumes processed as a % of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in Q1 2020 almost doubled from 12.5% in 2019 to 25.6% in 2020. Kenyan Wall Street |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | The increased JumiaPay GMV penetration is a positive signal of COVID-driven disruption towards a new normal of online payments. Here's a link to Jumia's 2020 Q3 earnings presentation. |
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| Global | WhatsApp Pay finally launches in India. WhatsApp's in-chat P2P payment service has finally launched in India after approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This comes after an almost 2-year trial run which started in February 2018. The service will leverage India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and allow users connect their bank accounts to exchange money with their WhatsApp contacts. Quartz |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | While this is a much-needed victory for WhatsApp whose previous efforts to launch the payment service in India and Brazil met with some regulatory resistance, there are still some limitations to their launch in India. NPCI has directed that the service be rolled out to only 20 million WhatsApp users and a 30% cap be implemented on total payment volumes processed via UPI from January 1, 2021. This is expected to deter monopoly and encourage competition in WhatsApp's largest market and we should expect other countries where WhatsApp plans to operate in the future to follow suit. |
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| Twitter | Are Nigerian remittances actually decreasing? Referencing a Stears Business article, Osarumen Osamuyi (@skweird) posits the rising adoption of crypto as an explanation for the decline in outward remittances through legacy channels in this tweet |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | According to the CBN, Nigerian remittances reached a whooping $25.3 billion in 2019 and was the second source of FX inflow into the country after the sale of crude oil. If crypto is indeed taking a cut of the remittance volumes, then that could spell even more FX uncertainty for the legacy players as most of these crypto-enabled remittances would likely skip USD and do direct BTC/NGN conversions. |
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| Egypt | Cairo Angels launches a micro VC fund. Cairo Angels, an Egyptian angel network, has announced the launch of a micro VC fund focused on tech startups in Africa and the Middle East. The Fund is expected to raise between $1.2 million to $3 million and close the initial round in the first quarter of 2021. Menabytes |
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| Nigeria | Xend Finance raises $1.5m, launches DeFi platform for cooperatives. Xend Finance, a Nigerian fintech, announced the close of a $1.5m strategic investment round led by Binance Labs and Google LaunchPad. The new funding also follows the launch of a decentralised platform focused on credit unions and co-operatives. Disrupt Africa |
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| Kenya | Turaco completes $2m seed funding round The Kenyan insurtech company recently announced a $2m led by Novastar Ventures, with participation from Mercy Corps Ventures, Musha Ventures, GAN Ventures, and Zephyr Acorn, as well as some angel investors. Turaco, which partners with local companies and mobile lenders to provide relatively cheap insurance to underserved communities, plans to use the new funding to scale operations in Kenya and Uganda and expand into a third market next year. Disrupt Africa |
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