Palmpay, an African Digital Bank of Fintech, is in talks to raise $ 50 million and $ 100 million in a round of B series, according to many sources familiar with the issue.
It is not clear what valuation she hopes to get, but her last round, in 2021, ranked it among the most valuable newly established Epirus businesses, is only estimated to be a shy of the Unicorn regime.
While Palmpay refused to comment on the details of the concentration of capital, a spokesman said the six -year -old Fintech was “in a strong financial position and exploring growth opportunities”.
The company, which has raised almost $ 140 million across the seed and rounds of the A series, is now profitable, according to people who are familiar with its finances.
The new capital, which is expected to include both shares and debt, will supply Palmpay expansion: deepening its imprint in Nigeria, escalating the latest business -focused offering and releasing both products in new markets throughout Africa and Asia.
Last month, Palmpay announced that it had hit 15 million daily transactions, leading to its 35 million registered users. These transactions are now adding to “tens of billions of dollars” a year to value, according to the company.
Revenue has also increased. Palmpay’s revenue – $ 64 million in 2023, according to the Financial Times – have more than doubled since people who are familiar with the company’s finances say.
Started in 2019, Palmpay started in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and a major fintech hub. At that time, more than half of adults in the country were not destroyed and traditional banks were mainly serving employees or official customers, often with demands that excluded mass market users.
Palmpay saw the opportunity to reverse this model to her head: to build a digital bank from scratch, but to optimize it for the realities of the informal African economy. The company launched an application with immediate boarding, zero transfer fees and a growing number of services (including credit, savings, insurance and bill payments), all adapted to the needs of consumers and small businesses.
Basically, Palmpay was not based solely on digital acquisition. Fintech has created a huge network of over 1 million small businesses and traders, who are now serving more than 10 million customers per month through the Palmpay Business application and point -selling devices (for cash, cash).
Other big fintechs in the country, including Opay, Moniepoint, and PietyThey have also adopted the hybrid model, combining digital applications with natural contact points.
Palmpay claims to process more transactions than any traditional bank in Nigeria and 25% of its users report that they were their first financial account. For credit products, offered in cooperation with authorized lenders, this number jumps to 60% among borrowers, he claims.
Part of Palmpay’s strong distribution and marketing advantage comes from its collaboration with Transsion, the Chinese telephone manufacturer dominated by Smartphone sales in Africa, with a market share of over 40% in all its brands (Tecno and Infinix).
Through the corporate relationship, Palmpay is predicting its implementation to selected funded smartphones, helping to promote users’ acquisition and commitment.
Having established itself as one of the most widely used Fintech applications in the country, Palmpay is now getting ready to reproduce its model in new markets abroad.
The Neobanking platform has expanded to Tanzania and Bangladesh (its first invasion outside Africa), where Palmpay enters the financing of devices and consumer loyalty as wedges before laying in more services. (Other African digital banks, such as Fairmoney, MNT-Halan and Tymebank, have expanded their financial services in Asia with different degrees of success.)
The company also plans to introduce the funding of devices to Nigeria, its spokesman has confirmed.
While Transsion, which led the Palmpay seed, remains a strategic partner, the company spokesman says Fintech is actively exploring partnerships with more equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
The GIC (Suvereign Endy Fund in Singapore) and MediaTek, one of the largest chipset manufacturers in the world, are some of its other investors.
On the part of the business, Palmpay offers cross -border payments for traders who want to send and collect payments to Africa through a single API, a repeated point of pain (even with the promise of Stablecoins). This recently launched a business trait, which today lives in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania (with South Africa in progress), is already processing “hundreds of millions of dollars per month,” the company spokesman confirmed.
