Chinese GPs back Nigeria’s OPay
Nigeria-based online services platform OPay has raised a $50 million funding round with participation by a number of Chinese investors, including IDG Capital, Source Code Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Meituan-Dianping, and GSR Ventures.
Opera Software, the Norwegian web browser developer that incubated OPay and is also backed by IDG, participated in the funding round as well. OPay plans to use the new capital to strengthen its position in Nigeria, enter new markets in Africa, and add additional verticals to its service offering.
Founded in August 2018 as OperaPay, OPay is best known for its signature mobile payment service aimed at promoting financial inclusion among Nigeria’s largely unbanked population. As of June, the company claimed to be Nigeria’s largest mobile transaction provider, with 40,000 active agents on the platform and daily transaction volume of more than $5 million.
OPay plans to build on this userbase by extending into new verticals including ridesharing through ORide, and food delivery through OPay. The strategy in some ways reverses that of Asian internet platforms Go-Jek and Grab, both of which started exclusively as ride-hailing apps but aim to leverage their growing ubiquity into financial services and logistics.
“By incubating OPay and supporting the company through its rapid acceleration, Opera has also demonstrated its ability to leverage its brand and consumer reach to create attractive, fast-growing businesses on the African continent,” said Yahui Zhou, chairman and CEO of Opera, in a statement. “We are highly pleased by the team’s results and are excited to continue supporting OPay as the journey continues.”
Africa is an increasingly attractive destination for Chinese technology companies, due to its large and relatively youthful population. Several start-ups have raised capital recently aimed at fueling expansion in the continent, including music streaming service Boomplay and mobile operating system maker KaiOS Technologies.
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