Good news for Chipper Cash, the Africa-focused fintech startup that offers mobile-based, no fee, P2P payment services in six countries: Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya. The startup has raised a $6 million seed-round led by Deciens Capital.

“Southern Africa is an area we’re looking to expand to in 2020,” said CEO Ham Serunjogi.

Here Is The Deal

• This round of financing was led by Deciens Capital whose co-Founder Dan Kimerling confirmed the fund’s lead on the latest round and that he will continue his role on Chipper Cash’s board. Other participants in the $6 million financing include previous investors, and a few new backers, such as Boston based Raptor Group.
• Chipper Cash plans to use the fund to move to Southern Africa — home to the continent’s second-largest and most advanced economy of South Africa.
• It also plans to use the capital to grow its team and move into new geographic areas
• This will place it in all three corners of the Africa’s triangle of leading digital finance markets.
• In September 2019, Chipper Cash expanded into what is now arguably Africa’s largest fintech market, Nigeria.
• With its latest round, the startup has raised over $8 million in seed capital.
• The digital finance startup’s had a busy 12 months in an eventful year overall for Africa’s fintech scene.
• After going live in 2018, Chipper Cash raised $2.4 million in May 2019 in a seed round that included support from 500 Startups and Liquid 2 Ventures — co-founded by American football icon Joe Montana.

A Look What The Startup Does

• Chipper Cash is a platform that allows you to send and receive any amount of money across the East African region for free.

“We do not charge any fees at all and there is no minimum amount so you can send any amount,” says Chipper Cash.

• The fintech company, co-founded by Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled, now has more than 600,000 active users and has processed over 3 million transactions on its no-fee, P2P, cross-border mobile-money payments product, according to Serunjogi.
• The startup also runs Chipper Checkout: a merchant-focused, fee-based C2B mobile payment product that generates the revenue to support Chipper Cash’s free mobile-money business.

There are hundreds of payments startups across Africa looking to bring the continent’s large unbanked and underbanked populations onto mobile finance applications.

Recently, Chinese investors poured about $220 million into OPay and PalmPay — two fledgling payment startups with plans to scale in Nigeria and the broader continent. That money dwarfs rounds raised by other fintech companies, such as Chipper Cash.

Read also: South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria Ranked World’s Top 100 Fintech Startup Ecosystems

On how the startup will compete in this crowded ecosystem, Serunjogi points to Chipper Cash’s gratis-payment structure, among other factors.

“Money doesn’t buy product market fit. It doesn’t buy ultimate success in this space,” he said.

“By offering our product for free, we’re not in a pricing war or competing on a dollar-to-dollar basis. We’re in a pure utility war on who can provide the most value to our users. We’re quite comfortable with our position, and our long-term value proposition will speak for itself over time,” Serunjogi added.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world