LatAm fintech unicorn Ebanx expands into Africa’s payments market

After increasing its footprint to 15 Latin American countries for more than a decade, EBANX has prioritized global expansion on the African continent, which it believes is the next major growth frontier for digital payments and the digital market during the 2020s.

The fintech unicorn revealed this during the sixth edition of the annual Latin America Summit powered by EBANX in Mexico City on Tuesday (September 13, 2022).

“This is the moment for Africa and it is quite reminiscent of the Latin American landscape back in 2012 when EBANX first began its journey by giving global merchants access to sell more goods and digital services via the internet to Latin Americans through local payment methods,” João Del Valle, CEO and co-founder of EBANX, said in a statement seen by Benjamindada.com

Africa’s fast-growing digital economy is only in its early days, and it is projected to grow up and to the right for the next few decades. Together with local players, EBANX will be a catalyst for realizing the many benefits of a digital economy even faster. – João Del Valle

According to a June 2022 report published by Endeavor with contributions from McKinsey & Company, there is currently a $115 billion digital economy in Africa, the result of a combination of a young and digitally savvy population, increasing digital penetration and the impact of COVID -19 pandemic.

When it comes to the digital gaming market, the Africa region is the fastest growing in the world, according to Newzoo. It is currently a $2.6 billion market, scaling 5x faster than the global average by 2022, and is expected to grow at nearly 10% per year through 2026. The streaming market in Africa, currently at $1.9 billion , is expected to accelerate even faster, at 14% per year through 2026.

Ebanx will compete with African fintech companies such as Flutterwave, Yoco, Paystack, MFS Africa and OPay, which are currently in the continent’s payments market.

According to Paula Bellizia, President of Global Payments at EBANX, “Africa is now brimming with growth potential. Digital adoption and consumption of electronic goods and services has accelerated rapidly in countries, and investment capital has flowed into the region.”

“After studying the region and building a deep understanding of its local actors, entities and challenges, we are diving into Africa to provide local payment solutions that will help build the digital economy at a rapid pace, drive wider financial inclusion for the population , and provide greater access to a range of goods and services from global merchants interested in building their market share there,” Belliza added.

According to Endeavor’s report, the three African countries EBANX is focusing on first (South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria), together with Egypt, account for 32% of the continent’s population, 51% of its GDP and 73% of the startup accelerators that are active. in Africa today. Africa’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2010 to 2019 was higher than in both Europe and Latin America.

Importantly, a high level of mobile penetration and consumption in African countries positions the region to be the “next frontier” – but while increasing mobile access, it helps to increase e-commerce in LatAm in the later stages of digital inclusion, in Africa, mobile devices and digital. remittances are the foundation of banking access and financial inclusion for the continent’s vast population of more than 1 billion people.

Pipefy, a powerful SaaS low-code workflow management platform founded in 2015 in Latin America and operating in over 200 countries worldwide, is present in the Africa region with EBANX as payment partner. “Extending 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 for us, expanding solutions and services in regions full of opportunity,” said Bellizia.

How Ebanx’s pan-African expansion will work.

According to a statement, the LatAm unicorn revealed that its solutions in the African region will consider popular local payment methods such as: Instant EFT by OZOW in South Africa; the payment method allows line customers to access online banking to make an electronic funds transfer (EFT) that is confirmed immediately. EFT is the second most popular online payment method in South Africa today.

In Kenya, Ebanx will try M-Pesa, a mobile banking service that allows users to store and transfer money, as well as pay for online shopping via their mobile phone. M-Pesa was introduced in Kenya as an alternative way for the country’s population to access financial services.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the company revealed that it will experiment with the following payment methods: USSD— a session-based protocol that goes over the GSM signaling channel to query for information and trigger services. It enables customers to pay for their e-commerce – and Bank transfers, which enables customers to pay for online purchases quickly and easily without the need for a credit or debit card. They are one of Nigeria’s leading alternative payment methods because they are very secure and reliable.