Payments firm Wapi Pay has raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding to boost global payments and remittances between Asia and Africa.
Founded in 2009 by Paul Ndichu and Eddie Ndichu, the company, which is based in Singapore but with headquarters in Kenya and has additional offices in Singapore and Tianjin-China, seeks to make international transfers faster, easier and much cheaper.’
The fund drive was led by EchoVC & China-based global fund MSA Capital, which has also invested in other Asian unicorns, including NIO and Meituan. Kepple Africa Ventures also took part in this investment.
Wapi Pay’s existing investors are Transsion Holding, the mother company of TECNO, Infinix and iTel, Future Hub, and Gobi Ventures.
As said, the firm’s main business is processing Africa-Asia remittances.
Wapi Pay bypasses traditional payment networks, optimizing efficiency and cost for our customers. Users choose the delivery channels they want, such as Bank to Bank, Wallet to Wallet, Bank to Wallet, and Wallet to Bank options to transfer funds as well as make merchant payments, with settlement done within 24 hours – Eddie Ndichu, co-founder Wapi Pay.
Eddie further adds that the funds will play a key role in helping the firm diversify its product ranger and drive growth to evolve remittances into real-time global cross-border payments. For the moment, Wapi is targeting the two continents.
Wapi Pay is an exciting fintech that is removing friction in an enormous payments space for Africa and powering the circular trade economy. As the symbiotic relationship between Africa and Asia deepens, Wapi Pay’s ecosystem of services will become increasingly critical to bridge and drive economic value between the two continents. We look forward to working with Paul and Eddie on this next phase of growth – EchoVC.
The company runs its operations in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It also works with local banks and platforms in the said countries.
Wapi Pay seeks to process $500 million in remittances by the end of 2022.
It also looks forward to growing the number of registered suppliers and beneficiaries in Asia to 100K and sign up 500K merchants, traders, and businesses in Africa.
