Transsion Holdings, Makers of Tecno Leads $40 Investment in PalmPay

Transsion Holdings, the makers of Tecno, Infinix and Itel brands, has led $40 million seed funding in PalmPay. The investment was joined by NetEase and Mediatek

PalmPay is a product of Transsnet Group, the joint venture between NetEase Group (NASDAQ: NTES) and Transsion Holdings Group.

Transsnet already boasts an array of popular Africa-focused apps, including short video-sharing platform, Vskit and music streaming service, Boomplay.

Having a hand on mobile payments will give it further edge tapping into the ever-increasing and competitive Internet market which Africa presents.

PalmPay plans to offer financial services to meet the daily needs of many users across Africa; like top-up funds electronically, make transfers, and pay for airtime and other bills.

Although launching today, PalmPay’s history shows that the play was to advance financial inclusion across Africa, through access to real-time digital payment services.

The product has been in testing in Ghana since May and last month, some customers in Nigeria, who had the opportunity to test it, benefitted from zero-cost on transfer fees and other cashback incentives.

According to reports, the fintech company obtained a PSP Mobile Money licence from CBN in July to enable offline access points to Nigerians who do not have bank accounts.