Companies & Deals
$5 MILLION FUND
TO KENYAN INTERNET
PAYMENT FIRM
By George wainaina
[email protected]
Direct Pay Online (DPO) is the
home of online payments, they
believe in the freedom to pay and be
paid from Anywhere and Anytime.
They fill the gap between the
merchant and their end customers.
Apis partners, UK based private equity
fund, injected a second investment
fund of US$5million to Direct pay
Online. This investment follows an
initial investment of US$10 million
last year, these funds will be used to
fuel DPO Group ambitious strategic
plan which includes organic growth
across Africa, strengthening the
group positions through acquisition
and mergers, developing new
payment technologies, integrating
all companies in the group and the
14 | THINK BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 2017
DumaPay app. “The additional capital
from Apis is a sign of the confidence
that our partners have in us, and
is a positive reinforcement of the
good work we are doing with the
business,” said DPO Group Chairman,
Offer Gat. “DPO Group has achieved
and exceeded the plans laid out in
the first phase of the strategic plan.
We have established a presence in
12 African countries namely Kenya,
Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda,
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South
Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and
Mauritius. We further plan to set
up operations in Nigeria, Ghana,
DRC and Mozambique by the end of
2017.” The money will be used in
growing mobile application, DumaPay
and to develop new technologies,
said DPO. The company has made
five acquisition in Botswana, South
Africa and Namibia in its project of
expanding across the continent. The
firm says that the payments serves
25000 online merchants in Africa,
assisting them to accept payments
from e-wallet, mobile money and
credit cards. A new product called
mVisa was launched after Direct Pay
Online partnered with visa in July.
mVisa allows payments at a points-
of-sale by scanning a QR code, for
smartphones or using a short code for
feature phones. It also enables users
to send money directly from one bank
account to another. UK-based Apis
focuses on providing growth equity
mVisa allows payments
at a points-of-sale by
scanning a QR code, for
smartphones or using
a short code for feature
phones.
for companies in financial services. It
operates in the United Arab Emirates,
Kenya, India, South Africa and
Nigeria. Apis in March announced
closing the Apis Growth Fund I,
from which it is drawing capital to
invest in DPO, with commitments of
KSh29.8 billion (US$287 million) from
investors that included the African
Development Bank, Old Mutual and
the European Investment Bank TB