Mauritius-based Accelerex Holdings the parent company of Global Accelerex has secured a $20 million funding from a private equity firm, Africa Capital Alliance (ACA) to enable it to expand into Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa over the next 24 months.
Accelerex also acquired a majority stake in Abuja-based SLS Microfinance Bank to serve the financial needs of its fast-growing agent banking business. In 2019, the company had also acquired a minority stake in Connected Analytics (also known as ThankUCash), a Lagos-based fintech platform that enables merchants to provide loyalty rewards to their customers thereby boosting their sales.
Incorporated in 2008, Global Accelerex commenced payments services in October 2013 after it received licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Currently, the company supports 95 percent of Nigerian banks and over 90,000 merchants across the 36 states in the country.
After Nigeria, Accelerex expanded its operations to Ghana in 2019 and will now hope to grow its portfolio across other African countries. The $20 million funding will also drive new product development across the group.
“In our quest for the right investment and strategic partner, we were looking for a company that shares our vision to empower businesses in sub-Sahara Africa to exceed all their customers’ payment expectations,” Tunde Ogungbade, CEO of Global Accelerex said of the funding. “This partnership will help Accelerex to aggressively expand into Africa and accelerate product development. I see our vision becoming a reality with this move.”
Africa Capital Alliance manages the Capital Alliance Private Equity IV (CAPE IV) a $570 million fund focused on healthcare, energy, power, infrastructure, agriculture, agribusiness, telecommunications, media, technology, FMCG, and financial services sectors in West Africa. The fund so far has focused on Nigeria, but also in neighboring countries such as Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, and Cameroon.
Paul Kokoricha, partner at ACA said it elected to fund Accelerex because of the huge potential of fintech companies in Africa and only good funding combined with strong expertise are crucial to scalability.
“Accelerex’s strong business model and its agile and dynamic management team make it the ideal African fintech group to back,” Kokoricha said. With the investment, CAPE IV will become a strategic partner in Accelerex and will hold three seats on the company’s board.
The agency banking arm of Accelerex, Accelerex Network Limited (ANL) is a major driver of financial inclusion in Nigeria. It supports the Federal Government of Nigeria and the CBN’s financial inclusion agenda, targeted at the underserved and unserved segments of the population. Accelerex Network Limited has grown its agent network to over 9,000 agents within the last 12 months and plans to reach 40,000 agents by the end of 2021.
