BitPesa, a leading digital African foreign exchange and payment platform headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, has rebranded to AZA and raised $15 million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
AZA Finance now becomes a currency trading solutions provider with BitPesa as its first flagship product offering wholesale cryptocurrency liquidity for individuals and institutions across Africa. AZA also becomes the parent company to BitPesa.
AZA now has three products under its product portfolio:
- BitPesa – A provider of cryptocurrency liquidity, exchange and other services across Africa
- BFX – A B2B payment solutions provider for businesses in Africa and abroad
- Transfer Zero – An API infrastructure service providing digital remittance solutions
The Founder and CEO, BitPesa, Elizabeth RossieloAccording to Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO, AZA:
“They [DBSA] believe in what we are doing, and that the digital payments and financial infrastructure we are building will play a massive role in helping African businesses thrive globally and in return develop the continent’s economy.”
The company says the funding will be used to improve liquidity and service more transactions as it expands to other markets globally.
BitPesa was founded in 2013 as a solution to the inefficient and expensive remittance service and quickly expanded to Nigeria and Uganda in 2015 after raising $1.1M in seed funding.
So far, the company is operating in the following countries, 11 of which are in Africa:
- Kenya
- Uganda
- Tanzania
- Morocco
- Senegal
- South Africa
- Ivory Coast
- Benin
- Togo
- Spain
- Luxembourg
- UK
The company has also recently partnered with a giant Japanese remittance services provider, SBI Remit, and the Japanese insurance provider giant, Sompo Holdings to enable cross-border payments.
The company is gunning for a $100M monthly transaction mark across the African market.
