Payment gateway CinetPay has received $2.4 million in seed funding to further its mission to provide an online payment solution in Francophone Africa. The round was led by Pan-African venture capital fund 4DX Ventures and unicorn Flutterwave, TechCrunch reports.
Founded by Idriss Monthe and Daniel Dindji, the birth of CinetPay was due to an uncanny experience Monthe experienced after a slew of issues arose to collect payments at his former startup CinetCore.
“When we launched our website to sell domain names online, we faced difficulty in collecting online payment after creating many PayPal accounts which were blocked by PayPal because we were in Africa,” Monthe said, according to TechCrunch.
Determined to create a solution that would benefit many others who face similar obstacles in Francophone Africa, CinetPay was born in 2016. Enlightened by the realization that the majority of the African population have a mobile bank account, and up to 20 percent have access to a bank and credit cards, the founders knew they could launch a payment gateway where merchants can easily accept mobile payments.
CinetPay Has Helped More Than 400 Merchants
For merchants to register on CinetPay, they must provide their KYC, integrate Cinet’s APIs, to begin receiving payments, as well as pay a yearly fee of $20.
The platform proves to be quite promising for over 400 merchants who can access over 130 payment operators in nine countries, TechCrunch reports. However, with over 12,000 registered users on the platform, CinetPay’s retention rate is alarmingly low. Monthe told TechCrunch the rate is due to merchants who have created various accounts before settling with one. Despite this, CinetPay has stewarded its 400 merchants in the right direction fulfilling over 30 million transactions and processing nearly $12.5 million in transactions monthly.
New Funding Will Expand CinetPay's Influence Throughout Africa
CinetPay plans to use the new funding to bolster its sales and revamp its marketing efforts in West and Central Africa. The funds will push forward CinetPay’s overarching goal to become the primary payment gateway within the next four years.
“Our vision is to be the first payment aggregator in Francophone Africa by 2025. First in terms of our geographical presence in 15 countries in Francophone Africa. First in terms of innovation, first in terms of market share,” Monthe told TechCrunch.
