MultiChoice Group, Rapyd and General Catalyst have announced a joint venture aimed at developing an integrated payment platform for Africa. The joint venture will operate under a new company, called Moment.
Moment offers expanded payment infrastructure for businesses across Africa to help them collect and make payments easier, quicker, and more affordable in any manner that their buyers or suppliers prefer. Moment will also offer additional options for consumers to spend and save money more wisely. The aim is to transform the African payments landscape by making digital payments more accessible and reliable. Not just domestically though, but for cross-border and global payments too.
“We are excited about our venture with Rapyd and General Catalyst. It will address the need for an accessible and reliable payment platform for many small businesses and millions of consumers in Africa. Investing in this venture is a logical progression for us. We already process payments every month from 22 million households across 50 countries in Africa,” said Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO.
“Moment fulfills our strategy to expand our ecosystem, by investing in adjacent businesses that provide scalable services, underpinned by technology.”
Expanding into a growing market
Moment will consolidate the $3.5billion in payments that the MultiChoice Group processes annually. As a result, it will expand options for subscribers and make payment processes more efficient. This is in addition to extending its payment network to African and global businesses.
“We are thrilled to be able to partner with MultiChoice and our network partners to provide Africa’s most complete payment platform for businesses through Moment. Africa is one of the most exciting markets in the world. It has tremendous opportunities to expand the use of digital payments and drive cash payments to real-time digital payments. This is all in addition to capitalising on the tremendous entrepreneurial drive of African businesses,” says Arik Shtilman, CEO of Rapyd.
“Africa represents one of the most exciting investment opportunities for global investors. Over the next 20 years, most of the population growth of the world will be happening in Africa, along with increasing urbanisation. African consumers and businesses are not only moving business online, but will be the labour force for the world across the next 20 years,” adds Adam Valkin, managing director at General Catalyst Partners.
The long-term plan
The long-term plan is to provide the infrastructure for pan-African payments for the 44 million small businesses operating on the continent. It is also to turn the 90 per cent of retail transactions that are currently taking place in cash, into digital payments. Moment aims to make digital transactions more accessible to the 350 million consumers that are unbanked or underbanked.
Some of Moment’s long-term service offerings include:
Payments across 40+ countries in Africa through 200+ locally preferred payment methods to collect, disburse and manage risk.
Drive adoption of PayShap, TCIB, NQR, and other real-time payment methods across all markets.
Global-Africa trade for importers and exporters with virtual accounts in 40+ currencies and local payments in 130+ countries.
Payment tools, deep inventory to sell and financial services for micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Offering consumers payments, savings and rewards.
“Moment gives MultiChoice another opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the economic development of the African continent. It will play a key role in accelerating cash-to-digital payments for all consumers and businesses. Furthermore, it will make the continent more investment ready for global players, by connecting payments from Africa to the world,” Mawela concluded.
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