InTouch, a Senegalese-based aggregator of financial solutions and digital services, has announced a strategic investment from the CFAO company. The investment is done through a capital increase in which the CFAO group invests alongside Mobility54, a vehicle committed to the mobility industry in Africa that was launched in conjunction with Toyota Tsusho Corporation in 2019. TotalEnergies and Worldline, InTouch’s two long-term partners, also reaffirmed their commitment to the pan-African company with the transaction.
“We are very proud to announce the joint investment of the CFAO Group with Mobility54. This will help make InTouch a major payments player in Africa. We thank our historical partners Worldline and TotalEnergies for reaffirming their confidence with a renewed investment,” Omar Cissé, founder of InTouch said.
The exact amount of the new funding was not disclosed but InTouch had previously raised 10 million euros.
Why The Investors Invested
The investment is significant for CFAO, which wants to be a part of Africa’s digital payment industry development. CFAO also wants to contribute to the growth of InTouch in order to help the fintech company become the industry leader in Africa. Again, InTouch will be able to grow its geographic coverage because to CFAO’s historic presence in 38 African countries.
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“The financial inclusion of populations has been a major factor in the emergence of African economies and the pace of transformation. InTouch has been a part of the continent’s revolutionary transformation since its inception. The CFAO Group is delighted to be partnering with TotalEnergies and Worldline to support InTouch and its management team in their pan-African expansion “CFAO Group CEO Richard Bielle stated.
On the partnership, Gilles Grapinet, Worldline’s CEO, said: “Worldline, the European leader in payment services, has been a financial and industrial partner of InTouch since 2017, and is deeply committed to assisting Omar Cissé and his team in achieving the vision of this remarkable fintech, which aims to provide a unique payment acceptance solution in Africa. This is why we are very excited to welcome the CFAO Group as a new strategic partner to help InTouch grow and expand its influence on the continent.”
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TotalEnergies’ Africa Director of Marketing and Services, Stanislas Mittelman, added: “We are delighted that CFAO, one of our main African partners, has decided to join the InTouch adventure. At our service stations across the continent, we continue to use the InTouch system, which our customers love.”
A Look At What InTouch Does
In terms of payment acceptance and distribution of digital services, lnTouch is one of the pan-African leaders. The start-up developed a solution that offers more than 230 digital services (mobile money, agency banking, money transfer, purchase of telephone credit, etc.) and accepts all forms of payment available in the countries where InTouch operates (mobile money, bank card, voucher, digital cash, and so on), from a single interface available in the form of an Android application, web interfaces and APIs.
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The Fintech now has over 30,000 enterprises as clients, 1,000 corporate clients, and 1,200 TotalEnergies service locations in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Guinea Conakry, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa. InTouch employs over 250 employees and plans to expand to five new nations by the end of 2021, with a total of 21 countries on the continent by 2024.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer