OPay, a provider of a rapidly growing mobile payment service and
consumer platform, announced today that it has raised $50 million
in total funding. The lead investors included IDG Capital, Sequoia
China, Source Code Capital, Meituan-Dianping, GSR Ventures and
Opera Limited (Nasdaq: OPRA). OPay plans to use the new capital to
strengthen the company’s position in Nigeria, expand to additional
African markets and leverage its brand and app into adjacent
verticals, including motorbike ridesharing and food delivery
services.
OPay launched its mobile payment service in
August 2018, creating an infrastructure on which the company is now
also adding new services. The agent-centric mobile payment
operation focused on reaching the massive unbanked population of
Nigeria. Within less than a year, by June 2019, OPay had more than
40,000 active agents and saw daily transaction volumes in excess of
$5 million, propelling the company to become the largest mobile
transaction provider in the country.
Recently, OPay has expanded its ecosystem to new
verticals, including the motorbike ridesharing service ORide and
food delivery service OFood. OPay is already experiencing demand
far in excess of its capacity and is rapidly adding to its
motorbike fleet, ensuring a highly visible physical presence in its
core market, Nigeria.
Chairman and CEO of Opera Limited, Yahui Zhou,
commented, “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. We are highly
pleased by the team’s results and are excited to continue
supporting OPay as the journey continues.”
“OPay has successfully built a leading mobile
payment business in Nigeria in a short period of time. We are
excited to be part of its continued growth, as it provides access
to better mobile banking services for Nigeria’s 200 million
population, and expands into new areas,” said Qingsheng Zheng,
Partner of Sequoia China.
“We are thrilled that IDG Capital, Sequoia
China, Source Code Capital and others are coming onboard as
investors in OPay. The additional capital will allow OPay to
accelerate its growth in mobile payment services and the growth
into new verticals, such as motorbike ridesharing and food
delivery,” said Yahui Zhou, Chairman and CEO of Opera Limited.
“Further, the strength of Opera’s brand and OPay’s emerging
position will benefit both companies’ and their visions to lead
many internet verticals across Africa.”
Opera currently has significant reach in Africa.
At the end of the first quarter of 2019, there were nearly 120
million people across Africa and more than 350 million worldwide
using Opera products, including browsers, the standalone news app
and fintech offerings. This represented a fast double digit growth
for the company in the African region in comparison with the prior
year. The increase is due to Opera launching new products, the
addition of new mobile browser features, and its partnerships with
smartphone manufacturers across Africa. Further, this scale enabled
Opera to incubate OPay into a strong company that has significant
ambitions beyond its current offerings and geographical
footprint.
About OPay
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 in
Nigeria rely on OPay everyday to send and receive money, pay bills,
obtain transportation and order food and groceries. OPay is focused
on making opportunities accessible to everyone and delivering on
the promise of financial inclusion in Africa today to safely
connect people with the places, opportunities, and experiences that
they truly care about.
About Opera
Founded in 1995 in Norway, Opera delivers
browsers and AI-driven digital content discovery platforms to more
than 350 million people worldwide. The company remains one of the
most innovative browser creators in the world. Opera is listed on
Nasdaq under the OPRA ticker symbol.
About IDG Capital
IDG Capital is a leading investment firm focused
on developing extraordinary companies through expertise in private
equity, venture capital and mergers & acquisitions. By starting
the first investment in China in 1993, IDG Capital became the first
global investment firm to enter China. As of today, IDG Capital has
expanded into 13 cities around the world and has invested in more
than 800 companies and made over 180 successful exits across the
globe through IPOs and M&A.
About Sequoia China
The Sequoia China team helps daring founders
build legendary companies. In partnering with Sequoia China,
companies benefit from our unmatched community and the lessons
we’ve learned over 47 years. As “The Entrepreneurs Behind The
Entrepreneurs”, Sequoia China focuses on four sectors: TMT,
healthcare, consumer/service, and industrial technology. Over the
past 14 years we’ve had the privilege of working with more than 600
companies in China.
About Source Code Capital
Founded in 2014, Source Code Capital is a
leading China VC focused on the broad TMT sectors and investing in
both early stage start-ups and growth stage companies. With $1.5
billion and RMB 3.5 billion under management, Source Code Capital
has been successfully partnering with close to 150 leading Chinese
technology founders since inception including Bytedance, Meituan,
Homelink, among many others. Source Code is focused on the “Big 3”
fundamental drivers, which are Internet+, AI+, and Global+, and
invests along sectors such as media and entertainment, consumer
services, enterprise, finance, retail, transportation, housing,
education, and healthcare.
About GSR Ventures
GSR Ventures is a venture capital firm focused
on early-stage technology companies. We back entrepreneurs with
global ambitions – entrepreneurs building large, disruptive
businesses that have the potential to dominate multi-billion dollar
markets. We were the first institutional investors in DiDi Chuxing,
ele.me, Inke, ofo, Qunar, Shanghai DZH and Xiaohongshu.GSR Ventures
currently manages about $2 billion in a combination of USD and
RMB-denominated funds.
Press ContactsAlejandro Viquez,
Communications Manager at Opera.Email: alejandrov@opera.com
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