Ozow, a fintech business based in South Africa, has secured $48 million (R746 million) in a Series B fundraising round spearheaded by Chinese internet and technology giant Tencent.
Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest Fund were also part of the most recent investment round.
Thomas Pays, Mitchan Adams, and Lyle Eckstein co-founded Ozow in 2014, and it was formerly known as i-Pay.
In South Africa and Namibia, Ozow has created and operated an online automated Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payment gateway.
During March 2020, the firm handled R10 billion in transactions, continuing its remarkable expansion over the previous eighteen months, with a year-on-year increase of 100%.
“We’re still expanding quickly,” Ozow added, “processing over $100 million [R1.5 billion] in monthly transactions over a multitude of merchants.”
“We continue to observe tremendous growth in our user base, with over 120,000 new users using the system each month.”
Ozow’s remarkable growth, according to Pays, will be aided by the new fundraising round. This expansion comprises new product development and expansion into Africa.
“We’re also putting a heavy focus on strategic investments, such as mergers and acquisitions, to assist us achieve all of this,” Pays added.
“Our objective has always been to offer new payment solutions that enable millions of businesses and consumers to join in our rapidly increasing digital economy,” says the company.
“As we continue to play our part in altering the way people pay and get paid, our Series B fundraising round helps to fuel our rocket ship.”
