Brazilian payments giant, Ebanx, announced that it is expanding into Africa, starting with Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. After about ten years of operating in the Latin America, EBANX says it is ready to take on the world by expanding into new territories and believes that Africa is the next big growth frontier for digital payments and digital market during the 2020s.
Of course, the company will meet with strong contenders in the continent like Interswitch, Flutterwave, Paystack, Yoco and more that have been expanding across Africa aggressively.
Founded in 2012 by Alphonse Voigt, João Del Valle and Wagner Ruiz in Brazil, EBANX enables global businesses to connect with hundreds of payment methods in different countries. It currently has grown its footprint to 15 countries in Latin America and it processes payments for major companies like Airbnb Inc, Shopee and Uber.
It became a unicorn in October 2019, making it the first tech startup from the southern region of Brazil to surpass a $1 billion valuation after a follow-on investment from FTV Capital, a U.S.-based growth equity investment firm.
“This is the moment for Africa, and it’s quite reminiscent of the Latin American landscape back in 2012 when EBANX first began its journey by providing global merchants access to sell more goods and digital services via the internet to Latin Americans through local payment methods,” said João Del Valle, CEO and co-founder of EBANX. “Africa’s fast-growing digital economy is only in its early days, and it’s projected to grow up and to the right for the next few decades. Together with local players, EBANX will be a catalyst to realize the many benefits of a digital economy even faster.”
Pipefy, a powerful SaaS low-code platform for workflow management founded in 2015 in Latin America and operating within over 200 countries worldwide, is present in the Africa region with EBANX as its payments partner. “Expanding our solutions to African countries speaks directly to EBANX’s mission of creating access, and having Pipefy as a merchant makes this moment even more special to us, expanding solutions and services throughout regions full of opportunities,” Bellizia said.
EBANX solutions in the Africa region will contemplate popular local payment methods including:
In South Africa:
Instant EFT by OZOW, lets online shoppers access internet banking to make an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) that gets instantly verified. EFT is the second most popular online payment method in South Africa today.
In Kenya:
M-Pesa, a mobile banking service that lets users store and transfer money, as well as pay for online shopping through their mobile phones. M-Pesa was introduced in Kenya as an alternative way for the country’s population to have access to financial services.
In Nigeria:
USSD, a session-based protocol that travels over the GSM signaling channel to query information and trigger services. It enables customers to pay for their e-commerce shopping.
Bank Transfers, which enable customers to pay for online purchases quickly and easily without needing a credit or debit card. They are one of Nigeria’s leading alternative payment methods because they are very secure and reliable.
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