Chipper Cash raises 100million in series C funding, becomes the latest Unicorn in Africa
Chipper Cash, an African fintech startup that facilitates cross-border payments has raised $100 million in a Series C round.
This latest raise brings the start-up’s valuation to between $1 billion to $2 billion, joining billion-dollar companies in Africa like Flutterwave, Jumia, Interswitch, Fawry, etc.
Up until last week, the only private Unicorn startup in Africa this year was Flutterwave. With this new valuation, Chipper Cash has attained Unicorn Status.
This round was led by the investment arm of Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Capital.
Other participants in the round include existing investors – Deciens Capital, One Way Ventures, Ribbit Capital, 500 Startups, Bezos Expeditions, Tribe Capital, and Brue2 Ventures.
Founded in 2018 by Ugandan Ham Serunjogi and Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled, Chipper Cash provides mobile-based, no fee, P2P payment services in seven countries: Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, and Kenya. Now it has expanded to a new market outside Africa, the U.K.
In November 2020, Chipper Cash secured a $30 million Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital and Jeff Bezos’ fund, Bezos Expeditions.
This was after closing a $13.8 million Series A round from Deciens Capital and other investors in the same year.
Back in 2019, the startup had also raised $8.4million in seed funding.
This brings the total funding it has received to about $152.2 million across three rounds in three years.
The startup plans to leverage the new Series C funding to introduce more products and expand its workforce by adding up to 100 employees.
The new products it plans to introduce include a US stock offering for users in Nigeria and Uganda.
According to the CEO of Chipper Cash, Ham Serunjogi, “We’ve launched card products in Nigeria and we’ve also launched our crypto product. We’re also launching our US stocks product in Uganda, Nigeria, and a few other countries soon.”
Commenting on the round, the managing director of SVB Capital, Tilli Bannett said, “The VC firms invested in Chipper Cash because it has created an easy and accessible way for people living in Africa to fulfill their financial needs through enhanced products and user experiences.
As a result, Chipper has had a phenomenal trajectory of consumer adoption and volume through the product. We are excited at the role Chipper has forged for itself in fostering financial inclusion across Africa and the vast potential that still lies ahead.”
According to Tech Crunch, the number of users on Chipper Cash has increased to 4 million, up 33% from last year.
The company also averaged 80,000 transactions daily in November 2020 and processed $100 million in payment value in June 2020.
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