Pan-African cross-border payment app Chipper Cash is set to acquire Zambian fintech company Zoona Transactions International, according to a statement shared with TechCabal.
This acquisition will allow Chipper Cash, which has a self-reported user count of 5 million, to add new online services and a new agent network to its offerings. This move is also an expansion strategy by the company into Zambia.
According to Chipper Cash’s VP of Corporate Development, Laura Kennedy, Zoona’s acquisition will offer it “incredible innovation, a great partner network, complementary products and services, and talented in-country teams.” For Zoona’s co-founder and CEO, Brett Magrath, this acquisition allows the two companies to combine their expertise to connect consumers and businesses across the continent while positioning themselves as the first choice provider of financial services for the people of Africa.
Zoona pioneered the Zambian tech ecosystem when it was founded in 2008, developing the Tilt service that enables individuals and companies to pay and transfer to bank and money mobile providers in the country through cash, its digital channel, or its network of over 450 interoperable agents. The fintech, whose emergence coincides with the start of Africa’s mobile money industry, has processed over $3 billion worth of transactions since launch. In 2020, the Zambian company sold its business in Malawi to Cape Town-based payments company Mukuru, as it refocused its business to a B2B model.
CEO Ham Serunjogi founded Chipper Cash with Maijid Moujaled, who currently serves as the payment company’s President, in 2018 to offer fee-free personal and cross-border payment to Africa. Since then it has raised $300 million in venture capital funding and is now valued at $2.2 billion. Its services are available in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya, as well as in the UK and US.
“Bringing these companies together under the Chipper umbrella will mean we can open up even more borders, bringing quality financial services to life in more countries and connecting more people across the continent,” Kennedy said.
Chipper Cash did not share the financial terms of the transaction. The acquisition deal is also subject to the approval of relevant authorities.
