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The Nigerian-based mobile payment platform Paga has hinted at plans for transatlantic expansion in a recent statement published in The Washington Post.
“Nigeria’s biggest mobile payments company is vying to become Africa’s next unicorn, and its ambitions now stretch beyond the continent,” the statement read.
Paga is a mobile payment platform that enables people to digitally send and receive money while creating a simple financial ecosystem for paying bills and shopping with ease. Oviosu founded the company in 2012 with a critical focus on serving emerging markets, where millions have remained financially excluded.
“We are focused on making it simple for people to pay, get paid, shop and sell. I know the runway to where we are projecting to be from where we are today,” Oviosu said.
Paga already caters to the financial needs of more than 17 million unique users in Nigeria, including tech entrepreneurs, businesses and individuals.
According to the company, it has processed $2.3 billion in transactions in 2020 and $8 billion over the past four years.
Paga is now mapping out plans to expand to Ethiopia and Mexico to facilitate payments for the millions who lack access to banking services in the regions.
The first mention of this expansion was made in 2018 when Paga received $10 million in a funding round led by the Global Innovation Fund.
Techcrunch reported Oviosu as saying that the company was planning to release its payment product in Ethiopia, Mexico and the Philippines.
Meanwhile, U.S. financial services giant Visa partnered with the startup last year on payments and technology. The partnership, which did not include an investment from Visa, was staged to drive larger payment volumes for companies and Visa’s priorities in Africa.
Key investors in the company include Timothy Cook Draper, a U.S. venture capital investor and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper University, Draper Venture Network, Draper Associates and Draper Goren Holm, and Jim O’Neill, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a former UK treasury minister.
