Lessons from M-Pesa for Africa’s new VC-rich fintech startups

Lessons from M-Pesa for Africa’s new VC-rich fintech startups

4 years ago
Anonymous $4bURcB5AtU

https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/04/lessons-from-m-pesa-for-africas-new-vc-rich-fintech-startups/

In African fintech, the fourth quarter of 2019 brought big money to new entrants.

Chinese investors put $220 million into OPay and PalmPay — two fledgling startups with plans to scale in Nigeria and the broader continent. Several sources told me the big bucks had created anxiety for more than few payments ventures in Nigeria with similar strategies and smaller coffers. They may not need to fret just yet, however: lessons from Africa’s most successful mobile-money case study, M-Pesa, suggest that VC alone won’t buy scale in digital finance.