BitPesa is expanding its reach after announcing the acquisition Spanish based TransferZero, an international money transfer platform.
Founded in Kenya in 2013, BitPesa has become one of the largest blockchain payment platforms for Africa and Europe and has seen a 24 percent month-over-month growth for the last two years, according to Elizabeth Rossiello, founder and CEO of BitPesa, speaking at the Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit: Crypto, in New York.
BitPesa last year reached $10 Million in total funding and has experienced explosive growth. In its first year of launching in Nigeria BitPesa went from handling $100,000 a month to $1 million a month in transaction volume by the end of the year. Fast-forward to the end of 2017 and the payment platform closed the year with nearly $18 million a month in transactions.
“We just doubled our bank accounts, our infrastructure, and TransferZero is licensed by the Bank of Spain as a payments institution,” Rossiello said of the deal. She added that it’s not a move away from Africa, but rather a move to help BitPesa better serve its clients there and also customers who have spread to Europe.
“We are a frontier market company,” she said. “That’s the heart and soul of this company, that’s where the most value is derived from this business model.”
Voted Best Fintech Solution in Africa at the AppsAfrica Awards 2016, BitPesa sees itself as a simple way for individuals and companies around the world to buy and sell African currencies through bitcoin. The African nations that it operates in include Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana.
As a licensed Authorised Payment Institution by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), BitPesa is keen to expand its reach even further. Now, in a bid to do that it has acquired Madrid-based TransferZero, which sends money to businesses and consumers in 200 countries using more than 50 different currencies.