Abeg Technologies is finally embracing its true self. The mobile app, once a peer-to-peer platform where users can request money from other users, is changing its name to PocketApp and has received Approval-in-Principle (AIP) to operate mobile money in Nigeria.
The platform was founded by Dare Adekoya, Muheez Akanni, Patricia Adoga, and Eniola Ajayi-Bembe, in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020 when many young people who wanted to help others affected by the lockdown took to social media to do giveaways. PocketApp’s ability to enable users to request and send money to each other with tags was seen as cool. After gaining more than 5,000 users in the first few weeks with zero marketing, the platform soon morphed into a company with an insatiable appetite for scale. It was formally launched in 2021.
Its undisclosed acquisition by Piggytech Global Limited, the parent company of Piggyvest may have also pushed up the ambition to become more than a platform where young people request and send money to each other.
Today, PocketApp describes itself as a social commerce app from Piggyvest. Users can also make payments on the platform and micro-entrepreneurs can upload items directly from their Instagram with one click, add delivery options and rates, set price, and quantity, add pictures, and videos, escrow funds and can even allow for negotiation within the app.
In 2021, PocketApp made an emphatic statement by emerging as the headline sponsor of the Big Brother Naija, the most popular reality television show produced by Africa Magic, a subsidiary of MultiChoice. The cost of sponsoring the show was reported to be $2 million. It was a first for a company that was less than 1 year in the market.
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At the end of BBNaija Season 6, PocketApp saw a gigantic leap in users from 20,000 to 1.8 million representing an 8900 percent increase in app downloads. Patricia Adoga, the chief operating officer of the company, said the massive results justify the expense to expose the brand to the public. The company claims it now has over 2 million users.
“We are definitely looking forward to partnering with BBNaija again in the coming years,” Adoga said. The company was announced as the headline sponsor of the BBNaija Season 7 in May.
The newly rebranded company would be looking forward to splashing its new name PocketApp on the big screen as well as advertising its latest offerings as an ecommerce platform.
In a statement to BusinessDay, PocketApp said the new name references its added functionalities for users to buy and sell items via virtual pocket shops and reinforces its push into a social commerce market estimated to reach $23.8 billion by 2028 in Nigeria alone.
The rebrand may also be an opportunity for the new owners of the company PiggyTech to initiate some level of integration between PocketApp and Piggyvest. This is perhaps behind the title of the company as Pocket by Piggyvest. PocketApp is the second fintech acquisition PiggyTech has made after Savi.ng, a wealth management company previously owned by VFD Microfinance Bank. Piggytech’s pursuit of mobile money licence is to also align the objectives of the three companies, Piggyvest, PocketApp, and Savi.ng. PocketApp received the AIP on 25 April 2022. This is the first step towards final approval, subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions as stipulated by the CBN.
“We’re incredibly pleased that PocketApp has been granted approval-in-principle as a mobile money operator in Nigeria,” said Odunayo Eweniyi, co-founder and COO of Piggytech Global Limited. “We will now work closely with the Central Bank to meet all its conditions to receive the full operating licence, enabling us to continue growing and expanding the scope of our social payments, social commerce, and other digital financial products to reach millions of Nigerian micro-entrepreneurs.”
With the mobile money operator licence, PocketApp plans to provide wealth creation and management, e-money issuing, USSD, agent recruitment and management, pool account management, non-bank acquiring as stipulated in the regulatory requirements for non-bank merchant acquiring in Nigeria, card acquiring, and any other activities that may be permitted by the CBN.
“For the last 18 months, we have been focused on building the core infrastructure that will enable secure social commerce and payments at scale,” said Adoga. “We believe that social commerce will thrive better in a more trusted environment. So we added escrow to our payment infrastructure, protecting buyers and sellers and many other features, ensuring a smooth shopping experience on the app.”
