African fintech Moniepoint gets Visa backing, plans to work on contactless payments

Visa has joined African fintech Moniepoint as a new investor. The business banking and payments platform confirmed to TechCrunch that it received a “strategic investment” from the global payments giant as both companies look to drive financial inclusion and support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa.

Sources close to the deal say the fintech – which announced a $110 million investment last October, received over $10 million from Visa. The fintech, whose Series C now exceeds $120 million, is reportedly in talks with other investors and may attract more funding in the coming months, all while maintaining its billion-dollar valuation, sources say. Moniepoint declined to comment on the size of Visa’s check or interest from other investors. 

Moniepoint provides businesses and individuals with banking accounts, credit, payments, and other financial tools through an app and a network of agents. The fintech now processes over 1 billion transactions monthly, with total payment volumes reaching $22 billion—a growth of over 25% in under three months. Its rapid rise began during Nigeria’s Central Bank cashless drive in early 2023 and has continued steadily, positioning it as an important player shaping the future of digital payments in the country.

Moniepoint has just a fraction of the total market. Nigeria’s digital payment market spans multiple channels, including electronic transfers, ATMs, POS devices, mobile agents, and web payments. In 2023, businesses and consumers completed transactions worth approximately $400 billion, according to the country’s interbank payments switch. Electronic transfers, powered by the instant payments network NIP—comparable to India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix—dominate the market, accounting for nearly 90% of these transactions, according to data from Stears. Other channels, such as mobile agents, ATMs, and point-of-sale systems, trail far behind.

While Moniepoint operates across most of these channels, Visa’s investment highlights the fintech’s position and potential in Nigeria’s card value chain as both a major issuer and acquirer.

“We’re present in Nigeria today, leading the chart in merchant acquiring and consumer banking,” CEO Tosin Eniolorunda told TechCrunch. “With Visa as our investor, we can strategically collaborate to continue to grow the payment ecosystem and expand to more countries, which is a key goal for us.” 

One way both companies will look to “grow the payment ecosystem” is by introducing contactless payments, Eniolorunda said. “The central bank has indicated the need to drive contactless services to improve accessibility and conduct micro-transactions. So these are some things that we expect from the partnership. It’s progress in the right direction.” 

Nigeria’s Central Bank showed its latest intent to drive contactless payment adoption with draft guidelines for transaction limits in 2023. However, implementation will depend on clearer regulations and resolving issues related to privacy, security, and trust. Once addressed, contactless payments could significantly boost transaction volumes and arguably outpace other payment methods in the country. 

Globally, Visa notes that contactless card usage surpasses mobile wallets in many markets. Moniepoint is in that sweet spot to lead this transition in Nigeria by offering contactless-enabled payment terminals to businesses and chip cards to individuals, setting the stage for further adoption.

On the other hand, Moniepoint will leverage Visa’s Cybersource system to gain better visibility into transactions. Additionally, it plans to integrate with Visa Direct for remittances and money transfers as it looks to expand into markets within and outside Africa. 

Visa has a history of investing in Africa’s payment infrastructure, backing players like Interswitch, Flutterwave, Paystack, and JUMO over the past decade. With Moniepoint, Visa is making its entry into Nigeria’s SME market, aiming to digitize payments for them and partly in hopes of increasing its share of the country’s card scheme market. Currently, it lags behind Interswitch’s Verve and Mastercard in cards. The latter two have also started making inroads in the tap-to-pay opportunity.

“Visa’s investment in Moniepoint is the latest example of our long-standing commitment to advancing digital economies in Africa,” said Andrew Torre, Regional President, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa. “We will enable even the smallest businesses to thrive through innovative payment and software solutions that allow SMEs to scale and open new revenue opportunities while streamlining their operations.”

Visa will join Moniepoint’s board following its investment. Other prominent backers in the fintech include Development Partners International, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, QED Investors, and British International Investment (BII), among others. Last week, we also reported that an early backer, Oui Capital, recently returned its first fund after investing in the African unicorn six years ago.