Telecoms company Orange has reported invested in Afrimarket. The startup is a cash-to-good remittance company that helps Africans in the diaspora to pay directly for goods and services in partner retail outlets for their friends, family and businesses in Africa.
Founded in 2013, Afrimarket has become market leader in the category of facilitating remittances to Africa.
Under the agreement, Orange in addition to investing cash will also be playing active roles in Afrimarket’s development through the sharing of market knowledge and other benefits of its strong brand.
Orange said this type of service has grown into one of the most promising segments in the international money transfer market, and that its decision to take a minority stake in the company reflected its new strategy of funding startups through vehicles such as Orange Digital Ventures.
“Afrimarket is a startup in the development phase with an original and promising offer. It’s a good example of the type of project that our new Orange Digital Ventures fund is interested in investing in. We’re supplementing Orange’s existing open innovation initiatives, such as Orange Fab” said Pierre Louette, deputy CEO of Orange.
