New $10 mln investment pushes Paga total amount to $35 mln

Paga, one of the leading mobile money companies in Nigeria, has disclosed that it recently closed a $10 million financing deal led by the Global Innovation Fund (GIF).

Also participating in the investment are existing investors in the company – Goodwell (managed by Alitheia Capital), Adlevo Capital, Omidyar Network and Unreasonable Capital.

A statement from Paga explained that the new financing brings the total amount Paga has raised since inception in 2009 to $35 million.

The company commenced commercial operations in August 2012, and recently revealed that since then it has served 9 million customers and created over 10,000 jobs through its 17,000 agents who hire staff to run their stores.

“GIF is proud to lead Paga’s Series B2 round,” GIF’s CEO, Alix Peterson Zwane said.

“Paga’s mission of helping people ‘make life possible” aligns with our core mission of supporting entrepreneurs and innovators that seek to improve the lives of those living on less than $5 per day. I am pleased that GIF will help enable Paga’s next phase.”

Nigeria is one of the fastest growing emerging markets in the world, and the biggest economy in Africa with $405 billion GDP. Nigeria currently has a population of over 186 million but is expected to become the third largest country in the world (behind India and China) by 2050 with 411 million people.

“In Nigeria today, over 100 million adults find it difficult to transfer or leverage money for basic human needs. This problem is one that exists even for those that are banked and is something Paga’s team is passionate about solving.

“The growth financing announced today will enable Paga further scale its business in Nigeria to drive growth of Paga’s mobile wallet and agent network and explore expansion opportunities in other markets where similar problems exist,” the statement added.

“Our belief in Paga as an effective platform to drive financial inclusion is unwavering.

“Paga has shown solid progress, and alongside other investments in our portfolio has played a huge role in our ability to demonstrate that enabling access to essential services for the broad population has both significant financial and developmental impact,” Managing Partner at Alitheia Capital,” ‘Tokunboh Ishmael said.

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