Payment startup, PalmPay, launches in Nigeria after $40 million fundraise

PalmPay, an Africa-focused payments startup is launching in Nigeria on Wednesday after receiving $40 million investment from a group of investors led by Chinese mobile-phone maker, Transsion. Transsion is the Chinese company behind smartphones brands, Tecno, Infinix and itel.

According to a Transsion spokesman, the investment came via Transsion’s Tecno subsidiary, with participation from China’s NetEase and Taiwanese wireless comms hardware firm Mediatek.

PalmPay has been piloting its offerings in Nigeria since July 2019. You can send money for free, pay for your airtime and bills and earn rewards every time you spend with PalmPay. Led by CEO, Greg Reeve, with its headquarters in UK, PalmPay is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide electronic payment systems services in Nigeria.

As part of the investment, PalmPay has entered a strategic partnership with mobile brands Tecno, Infinix, and Itel that includes pre-installation of the startup’s app on 20 million phones in 2020.

“On channel and access, we’re going to be pre-installed on all Tecno phones. Your’e gonna find us in the Tecno stores and outlets. So we get an immediate channel and leg up in any market we operate in,” said Reeve.

In addition to Transsion’s support and network, Reeves names PalmPay’s partnership with Visa . “We signed a strategic alliance with Visa so now I can deliver Visa products on top of my wallet, link my wallet to Visa products and give access to someone who’s completely unbanked to the whole of the Visa network,” he said.

In Nigeria, PalmPay will offer 10% cashback on airtime purchases and bank transfer rates as low as 10 Naira ($.02).

In addition to Nigeria, PalmPay will use the $40 million seed funding to grow its financial services business in Ghana.

Reeve confirmed that PalmPay has local teams (and is hiring) in Nigeria and Ghana.