African mobile money firm Zoona has raised USD 15-million in a second round of financing. This Series B round is led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and will help Zoona scale up its operations as it aims to reach 10 markets and 30 million active consumers across Africa by 2020, it said in a statement.
First round investors Accion, a global nonprofit in the field of financial inclusion, and Omidyar Network, an investment firm started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, reaffirmed their commitment to Zoona by more than doubling their respective investments during the Series B round.
The Lundin Foundation, a foundation that provides capital to high potential businesses to create wealth and alleviate poverty, also increased its investment in Zoona during this round. The round also includes investment from 4Di Capital, a venture capital firm based in South Africa’s ‘Silicon Cape’, headed up by Zoona non-executive director Justin Stanford. Zoona further announced that Patrick Pichette, former chief financial officer at Google and long-time Zoona advisor has invested in the company.
Zoona uses technology to provide financial services to underserved and financially excluded communities across Africa. Zoona has over 1.5 million active users, and its system has processed over USD 1 billion in mobile money transactions since its founding 2009. The company’s mobile money platform has already enabled more than 1,000 entrepreneurs to become Zoona Agents, creating over 2,500 jobs at 1,500 agent outlets in the process.
