Opera Secures $50m for its Nigeria Fintech Startup, OPay

Opera Mini, the global mobile browser has announced that it has secured a $50 million funding for its mobile payment application, Opay in Nigeria.

The funds which were sourced mainly from China-based VCs with lead investors such as Sequoia China, Opera Limited, IDG Capital, Meituan-Dianping, GSR Ventures and Source Code Capital.

The investments will be channelled to scale up OPay’s position in the Nigeria market and secondarily hinge on other African markets, Opera stated.

A portion of the newly raised capital will be directed at the growth of its sister products – ORide (the motorbike hailing service) and OFood (Opera’s food-delivery service).

Starting off as a web browser initially, the Opera company delved into the Fintech space as well as other areas and has continued to do so successfully.

So far, in just 10 months of its existence in Africa’s most populous nation, Opera’s agent-focused mobile payment solutions, OPay, has recorded over 40,000 offline agents in the region and processed more than $5 million in daily transactions – a feat it was able to achieve with a $40 million investment. Now, with an extra $50 million on hand, the company hopes to be on the path to becoming the largest mobile payment provider in the country.

“Geographic expansion of OPay and other services” is a key part of the company’s plans for the next couple of years. One of the partner VCs also expressed its delight in participating in the round, Opera’s CEO Yahui Zhou said in a chat with TechCrunch.

“OPay has successfully built a leading mobile payment business in Nigeria in a short period of time. We are excited to be part of its continued growth, as it provides access to better mobile banking services for Nigeria’s 200 million population, and expands into new areas,” said Qingsheng Zheng, Partner of Sequoia China.

With products like OPay, OFood and ORide, Opera is seen to be evolving massively in the Nigeria tech ecosystem and in the African continent.

Opera anticipates to weigh in on the penetration of mobile phones, mobile money and their market share in the African region to make OPay the solution the continent needs to maintain the lead as one of its leaders in digital innovations.

Expectations are far-reaching as to see how the company will utilise this new capital raise just as Nigerians await the company’s new products and services in the coming months.

Also Read: Application for Seedstars World $100m fund for African startups Now Open