The transaction, according to rumors, was a cash and stock deal for $15 million to $20 million.
The CEO of CrowdForce, Oluwatomi Ayorinde, is moving over to FairMoney with the duty of leading the company’s PayForce by FairMoney business.
A branchless banking model called agency banking, which extends financial services to the last mile via a network of human ATMs, is provided by CrowdForce through the PayForce platform. FairMoney, which focuses on financial inclusion to serve the underbanked in emerging markets, initially offered credit-led neo banking services to retail customers.
The fintech firms have both developed through numerous iterations, market-driven innovation, and venture capital investments. They both offer agency banking services to fill the last mile. This has led to a wide range of digital retail and merchant banking solutions in a sector that is becoming more and more competitive.
While PayForce started out by providing merchants with Point-of-Sale (POS) devices and enabling them to offer services such as cash-in, cash-out, money transfers, and bill payments to retail customers, as well as providing liquidity through its network of partners, FairMoney began with a digital lending product offering loans from 15 days to 24 months to mostly retail customers.
Following a successful $42 million Series B in 2021, FairMoney now provides debit accounts, cards, P2P transfers, and payments to over a million retail customers and small businesses, which have become a key element of its business. With over 10,000 businesses now served, Payforce has expanded its range of products to include business banking, finance team tools, B2B payments, and virtual cards. Last February, the company raised a pre-Series A investment of $3.6 million.
Retail customers have already taken advantage of the acquisition’s incentives, which include an 18% annual return on deposits for PayForce merchants who choose FairMoney as their primary bank. To address the problem small businesses in Nigeria have acquiring loans and working cash, FairMoney will also develop specialized credit solutions geared to various sorts of firms. In addition, FairMoney might consider offering banking services to the offline clients CrowdForce has long supported.
In order to increase its market share, FairMoney is aiming to top Nigeria’s retail and merchant banks. To do this, it intends to broaden its product line by providing retail clients with credit cards, remittance, stock, and investment goods.
For its business-facing offerings, the fintech will also offer payroll services, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) choices, and online merchant purchasing.
According to reports, FairMoney is in talks to raise a bridge round of more than $30 million from both current and new investors. This money would be used for acquisitions (like PayForce’s) and to expand its operations outside of Nigeria and across Africa. The Tiger Global backed fintech is currently having various acquisition discussions in addition to expanding its stack.
Leave a comment