SimbaPay is a digital money transfer provider that enables customers in Africa to send money abroad instantly from their phones, including via the SimbaPay app, USSD, or partner bank apps. The platform can operate even without internet access, expanding reach to users with limited connectivity. Transfers are credited within seconds to recipients’ bank accounts or mobile money wallets, removing queues and paperwork. SimbaPay is based in Kenya and is licensed in the UK and five African countries. The company says it addresses speed, price, and ease for cross-border transfers and plans a gradual rollout to additional countries across Africa. The SimbaPay app is available on the Google Play Store. SimbaPay offers a gateway payment platform that enables banks, mobile-money providers and businesses to send funds across Africa and to China and India, including a new WeChat-based payment service for Kenya. The company built a third-party payment aggregator that uses QR codes on WeChat to deliver funds when buyer and seller both use the network, and it supports delivery via Family Bank’s PesaPap app, Safaricom’s M-Pesa and a USSD code (*325#). SimbaPay positions its product as a SaaS B2B solution for banks and telcos with offline/USSD capabilities so customers can use it without internet access. Revenue is generated via a fee-share arrangement with Family Bank and a sliding scale of charges (for example, sending the equivalent of $80 costs $3.50). The startup transfers to 11 countries today (nine in Africa, plus China and India) and plans to expand to 29 countries early next year and to roll the WeChat China payment service out elsewhere in East Africa. The company estimates over seven million Kenyan customers and businesses will be able to access the China WeChat payment service and projects an immediate transactional potential of $1 million in the first three months. SimbaPay launched in 2015 and has focused on intra-Africa and out-of-Africa payment volumes rather than remittances into Africa.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Nov 2018