NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, April 20, 2017

There are regions in Africa where money merchants trade on the side of the road, armed with huge stacks of both US dollars and their local currency, where cash is exchanged so rapidly, so effectively that it barely gets noticed. People go about their business – hardly acknowledging what to many foreigners would probably seem somewhat unusual. But this is the reality of Africa’s unbanked, informal but money-intensive market in 2017 – one that mobile payments firm Zoona is looking to target with infrastructure and services.

This is according to Mike Quinn, CEO of Cape Town-based Zoona, an established competitor within Africa’s rapidly developing digital finance sector – a market fuelled largely by growth within the mobile money transfer, remittance, and relevant services segments.

In February the company was one of only two African startups to have been included in the 2016 FinTech 100 list compiled by FinTech investment firm H2 Ventures and KPMG FinTech.

It has established a firm footing in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, and plans to utilise the US$15m it secured in a Series B second round funding led by the International Finance Corporation in August 2016 to expand, with short-term objectives to engage the DRC and Ghana.