MFS Africa Acquires Beyonic, Bringing Cross-Border Digital Payments to SMEs Throughout Africa
in Startups
MFS Africa has acquired Beyonic, a digital payments management provider of business services for SMEs, fintechs, and social impact entities across Africa.
MFS Africa – Africa's largest digital payments hub – connects more than 200 million mobile wallets on the continent through one API. Beyonic focusses on domestic payments and collections coupled with secure front-end business functionality.
"Africa has a strong base of connected young entrepreneurs and businesspeople who are bringing fresh ideas to the table, in order to create prosperity for themselves and for their communities on the continent," said Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa. "With the MFS Africa Hub, we have been creating new digital pathways between mobile money users in Africa and the global economy. With the acquisition of Beyonic, we can now put this digital payment network at the service of those entrepreneurs whether they are SMEs, fintechs, or social impact organisations. By combining MFS Africa's and Beyonic's assets and capabilities, we can unleash the wealth of opportunity that business within Africa and with Africa presents to the wider world."
Extended access and functionality will become available to customers of both organisations in the second half of 2020. In practice, this means that a Uganda-based organisation that uses Beyonic to manage digital payments to and from Ugandan mobile wallets and bank accounts will be able to reach additional markets directly and seamlessly using the same interface, leveraging the pan-African and global connections of the MFS Africa Hub.
READ UK's Maximeyes Group acquires Kenya's Bamba Group, a data collection technology firm
Luke Kyohere, founder, Executive Chairman, and CTO of Beyonic, said, "MFS Africa's mission to make borders matter less in digital payments aligns perfectly with Beyonic's vision of helping enterprises deliver fast, affordable fintech solutions to the last mile, where they are needed the most. Together, we will give our customers access to the broadest and deepest digital payment network in Africa." Mr. Kyohere continued, "I'm excited about the possibilities this partnership brings, especially when you factor in MFS Africa's recent partnership with Visa, enabling them to issue Visa payment credentials across their pan-African network[1]. It's a new dawn for SMEs in Africa."
According to the World Bank, SMEs contribute up to 40% of national income (GDP) in emerging economies. However, they face a number of growth constraints in emerging markets, including the ability to scale operations domestically, continentally, and internationally[2]. The new product offerings enabled by this acquisition will resolve some of these issues by enabling organisations to transfer funds securely and transparently across regions.