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UAE fintech Pyypl has raised $11 million in Series A funding.
Pyypl, which provides international payment services, said the funding was raised from a group of international family office and high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and that investors were drawn from Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East.
The funds will go towards expanding across GCC markets and into Africa, particularly Kenya and Mozambique, Pyypl said in its statement.
Pyypl said Middle East and Africa’s two billion-strong population has high smartphone adoption rate, but that access to finance services had not kept up: “Despite this, the majority of people are without access to essential financial services and there is no multi-billion-dollar fintech company, such as Revolut (Europe), Chime (North America), Nubank (Latin America) or Ant Financial (Asia).”
Founder and CEO Antti Arponen said: “Pyypl is on a mission to serve MEA’s huge consumer base. Hundreds of millions of people, whilst having a mobile phone and internet connection, are either completely unbanked or severely under-served in their daily financial services. The new capital will be deployed to scale our operations in the GCC and Africa – particularly Kenya and Mozambique.”
CFO Paul Goldfinch said Pyypl had seen its business volumes grow by 10 times in the last 12 months, and its card services had been used at thousands of merchants by hundreds of nationalities in more than 100 currencies.
The company currently employs 140 people and operates using blockchain in its core systems, enabling digital payments.
(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)
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