Zeepay, the Ghanaian fintech startup with operations in over 10 African countries, today acquired a 51 percent stake in Mangwee Mobile Money Zambia.
In a private placement, Zeepay and Mangwee agreed to a sale of 51 percent of Mangwee shares to Zeepay. The deal makes Zeepay Ghana the majority shareholder of the entity.
Mangwee has been in operations since 2018, and was initially set up to operate as an alternative wallet targeting university students in Zambia with the aim of assisting to drive the cost of mobile money services downward.
Zeepay is the leading African challenger fintech with operations across 20 African countries and 30 day active in 10 of them. The company specializes in paying remittances into mobile money wallets across Africa and is regulated by both Bank of Ghana as an EMI issuer and in the UK as a Money Transfer Operator, by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The merger is the first of its kind; that two Indigenous African fintechs into Mobile Money operations have come together to grow representing a wind of change ongoing on the African continent. Zeepay’s financial advisor Verdant Capital, acted as Zeepay’s M&A advisor on the acquisition.
The Managing Director of Zeepay, Andrew Takyi-Appiah, in an interview mentioned that “In 2020 we processed 2.4million transactions valued at $400million across 10 markets. The acquisition of Mangwee is strategic and opens up the Southern African corridor for Zeepay. This will give Zeepay access to Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Namibia amongst others in our efforts to capture Africa’s $70billion remittance market and opportunity to deploy our award winning products.”
Paa Kwasi Yankey, Chairman of Zeepay, mentioned “The move to invest in Mangwee is part of our global strategy to expand our footprint across Africa. In an effort to better serve our global clients and reduce the cost of remittance into Africa.”
“Acquisition of Mangwee by Zeepay marks the opening of Southern Africa to the world of conveniently affordable IMT services,” said Aston Njovu, co-founder of Mangwee.
Bwalya Kampamba and Aston Njovu, Founders of Mangwee mentioned “the partnership with Zeepay is good for Africa and Zambia. Through this, we will be able to leverage their award-winning mobile money products such as Remit Insurance, Payments, and Visa-direct to deepen financial inclusion and open up the markets.”
