Mastercard to invest $100 million in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business
Mastercard will invest $100 million in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business, two firms said today, just two weeks after TPG’s Rise Fund also backed the telecommunications firm’s unit.
The London-headquartered firm said it was taking a minority stake in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business. The deal valued Airtel Mobile Commerce (AMC BV) at $2.65 billion, the two firms said in a press statement Thursday.
New investment comes as Airtel Africa looks to monetize its mobile money business — one of the key fintech players in the continent that offers mobile wallet transactions, merchant and commercial payments, loans, virtual credit cards and support for overseas transfers — by selling up to 25% stake and “list this business within four years,” said Raghunath Mandava, CEO of Airtel Africa, in a statement.
“We are significantly strengthening our existing strategic relationship with Mastercard to help us both realise the full potential from the substantial opportunity to improve financial inclusion across our countries of operation. The combination of our extensive customer base and distribution platforms and Mastercard’s products and services, innovation and know how, mean we can together accelerate demand and drive growth in financial services for the benefit of all our customers and markets,” he added.
The mobile money business, which generated revenue of $110 million in the most recent quarter, has been growing at over 41% year-on-year, Airtel said. As of Q3 2020, the business had amassed over 21.5 million users.
Airtel Africa and Mastercard are no strangers. The two firms announced in 2019 that they had partnered to serve 100 million Airtel Africa mobile phone users in 14 African nations using the payments firm’s network.
As my colleague Tage Kene-Okafor wrote last month: “AMC BV benefits from a strong offline presence of kiosks, mini shops and agents, which tie with its core telecom business. And in a bid to drive growth this year, the business has struck partnerships with Mastercard, Samsung, Standard Chartered Bank and WorldRemit, among others, to expand both the range and depth of its mobile money offerings.”
Mastercard will invest $100 million in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business, two firms said today, just two weeks after TPG’s Rise Fund also backed the telecommunications firm’s unit. The London-headquartered firm said it was taking a minority stake in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business. The deal valued Airtel Mobile Commerce…
