Nigeria's Paga raises $10m for international expansion

Founded in 2009, Paga provides Nigerians with safe and convenient ways of making payments, allowing money to be sent to any phone number for the beneficiary to redeem at a Paga agent or at an ATM via a cardless withdrawal. Customers can also use Paga to deposit money to bank accounts in Nigeria, pay their bills, or top-up mobile phone airtime.

Tayo Oviosu, founder and CEO of Paga, confirmed the funding – which has come from the Global Innovation Fund, Unreasonable Capital and existing investors Adlevo Capital, Goodwell and Omidyar Network, on Twitter, saying the funding would be utilised in expanding the startup into new markets both in Africa and elsewhere.

Paga’s last funding round was back in October 2015, when it secured a US$13 million Series B funding round led by Adlevo Capital. Last month it announced it had hit the nine million user mark.

The investment is the latest in a string of fundraising successes for Nigerian fintech startups, with Mines, Paystack, Wallet.ng, Allpro, Thank U Cash also securing funding recently. South African PoS startup Yoco yesterday announced a US$16 million Series B funding round, firmly establishing fintech as the most popular sector for investors in African tech.