Participated · Equity · Jul 2019

OPay operates a mobile money and payments platform focused on serving unbanked and underbanked users via a network of thousands of agents. Its core revenue and usage drivers are person-to-person transfers, bill payments, and nonmerchant point-of-sale transactions. The company has expanded beyond an exclusive Nigerian presence into Egypt as an entry point to the Middle East. OPay reports very large transaction volumes: Opera said monthly transactions grew 4.5x to over $2 billion in December, and Bloomberg reported monthly volumes exceed $3 billion. The company claims to process about 80% of bank transfers among mobile money operators in Nigeria and 20% of the country’s nonmerchant POS transactions. OPay has pursued an international money transfer license and is reported to be working on a WorldRemit partnership. OPay is an Africa-focused fintech startup founded by Opera in 2018 and based in Lagos. It operates a payments product and a suite of consumer services in Nigeria, including ride-hail ORide, food delivery OFood and OLeads for SME marketing. The company focuses on high-frequency use cases such as transportation, food services and other daily activities, while also facilitating bill payments and airtime purchases. Since its Series A raise, OPay says it has scaled to 140,000 active agents and handles $10 million in daily transaction volume. OPay will use new funding to scale further in Nigeria, expand its payments product to Kenya, Ghana and South Africa, and deploy capital across Opera’s Africa network. Opera’s support positions OPay as part of a broader push to build a multi-service commercial internet platform across the continent. OPay offers a mobile payments and digital-finance platform that serves Nigeria and supports Opera’s broader commercial services. The company was founded by Opera in 2018 and grew out of Opera’s browser popularity in Africa. OPay has scaled to roughly 40,000 active agents and processes about $5 million in daily transaction volume. The startup supports Opera’s local apps and services, including motorcycle ride-hail app ORide and OFood delivery. Management says proceeds will be used to grow its digital-finance business in Nigeria and to diversify country and product offerings. The raise is positioned to accelerate mobile-money adoption in Nigeria and strengthen OPay’s compete with other multi-service internet platforms on the continent.