PawaPay is a U.K.-based, Africa-focused payments company that collapses telecom operators' mobile-money integrations into a single API for businesses. Its core product lets merchants access mobile-money systems from providers such as AirtelTigo, Econet, MTN, Safaricom, Orange and Vodafone to send and receive payments. The company says it handles over 10 million transactions per week and operates in beta across 10 African countries (Cameroon, DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia). PawaPay spun off last year from online sports betting company betPawa and is led by CEO Nikolai Barnwell. It plans to scale its operational presence, recruit talent, expand into new markets and go live across 30–40 telco integrations. PawaPay emphasizes full regulation and licensing in each market and manages local operations, compliance, regulatory cover and bank accounts to provide a stable product for high-volume mobile-money payments.

Total raised

$9M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Aug 2021