OPay raises $120 million from investors including Meituan-Dianping, GaoRong Capital, Source Code Capital
November 18 2019 - 7:20AM
OPay, one of the fastest scaling growth companies in Africa,
announced today that it raised $120 million of series B funding,
less than 6 months after it announced its last funding round of $50
million in June. The company, which was incubated by Norwegian
based, global consumer Internet company Opera (Nasdaq: OPRA), is
already Nigeria’s leading mobile wallet and motorbike ridesharing
provider, and is rapidly expanding. Series B investors included
Meituan-Dianping, DragonBall Capital (The Investment fund
backed by Meituan-Dianping), GaoRong Capital, Source Code Capital,
SoftBank Ventures Asia, Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI),
Redpoint China, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital China and GSR
Ventures.
OPay is one of the fastest growing companies in Nigeria,
providing consumers with a wide range of services including mobile
payments and transfers, ridesharing and food delivery. The company
plans to use the new capital to further accelerate its expansion
across its multiple verticals, as well as entering new African
markets.
“OPay will facilitate the people in Nigeria, Ghana, South
Africa, Kenya and other African countries with the best fintech
ecosystem that Africa has ever seen, paired with the inclusion of
daily use services such as transportation and delivery. We see
ourselves as a key contributor to expanding financial inclusion in
Africa, and helping local businesses and workforces to thrive from
opportunities created by new, digital business models. The capital
raised will be allocated to African countries where local
regulation is supportive of scientific and technological
entrepreneurship in the fintech space,” commented Mr. Yahui Zhou,
CEO of OPay.
OPay launched its mobile payment service in August 2018,
creating an infrastructure on which the company is now adding new
services. The agent-centric mobile payment operation focused on
reaching the massive unbanked population of Nigeria. Since its
Series A funding, OPay tripled its active agents to over 140,000
and saw daily transaction volumes doubling to exceed $10 million
per day, furthering the company’s position as the largest mobile
transaction provider in the country. Additionally, OPay’s motorbike
ridesharing service has become the largest of its kind in Nigeria,
more than tripling daily rides over the past three months, and the
company recently launched additional services around food delivery
and cashless payments for offline businesses. While still focusing
on Nigeria, OPay has the ambition to expand across the African
continent.
Mr. Zhou further commented, “OPay has become one of the most
important providers of online consumer services in Nigeria, and is
recognized widely among other players in the market. We are excited
that GaoRong Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, BAI and Redpoint
China are coming onboard in this round. The additional capital will
allow OPay to speed up its expansion in mobile payment services and
its growth in new verticals, Further, the strength of Opera’s brand
and OPay’s emerging position will continue to benefit both
companies and further escalate their ability to take leadership in
several internet verticals across Africa.”
About OPayOPay 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 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 OperaOpera is a leading global internet
brand with an engaged and growing base of over 350 million average
monthly active users. Building on over 20 years of innovation,
starting with our browser products, we are increasingly leveraging
our brand as well as our massive and highly active user base in
order to expand our offerings and our business. Today, we offer
users across Europe, Africa and Asia a range of products and
services that include our PC and mobile browsers as well as our
AI-powered news reader Opera News and our app-based microfinance
solutions.Opera is listed on Nasdaq under the OPRA ticker
symbol.
Press ContactsAlejandro Viquez, Communications Manager at
Opera.Email: alejandrov@opera.com
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