PalmPay provides a range of consumer financial services (no‑fee payments, low‑cost transfers, bill payments, rewards and discounted airtime) and merchant tools via its PalmPartner app, including online payments and offline POS acquiring. The company says it serves over 5 million users and, according to some sources, had monthly transaction volume exceeding $100 million as of June 2021. PalmPay launched in Nigeria in June 2019 and later expanded into Ghana. It has partnerships with Chinese phone brands such as Tecno, Infinx and itel, which reportedly include pre‑installation of the app on some 20 million phones. The startup plans to introduce digital marketing services for merchants. PalmPay has stated an ambition to become Africa’s largest financial services platform but faces competition from incumbents like OPay. PalmPay is a mobile payments product launched by Transsnet Group (a joint venture of NetEase and Transsion) to expand digital payment access across Africa. It offers services such as top-ups, transfers, airtime and bill payments and has been testing in Ghana since May with recent pilots in Nigeria. Early Nigerian testers received zero-cost transfers and cashback incentives as part of the rollout. PalmPay has obtained a PSP Mobile Money licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria to enable offline access points for users without bank accounts. The product plans to broaden into grocery shopping, logistics and ride-hailing via vendor and partner integrations. It can leverage Transsion’s device distribution (TECNO, Infinix, Itel) and Transsnet’s existing apps like Vskit and Boomplay for distribution and user acquisition. PalmPay is backed by $30-$40 million in funding for its launch and activities in Africa.

Total raised

$140M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Feb 2022