U.S. private investment firm TPG has paid $47.5 million to acquire an unspecified stake in Kenyan digital payments firm Cellulant, which operates in 11 African markets.
TPG said in a statement that across Africa, expanding easy-to-use and low-cost mobile banking offers immense potential for impact, and Cellulant is at the leading edge of that work. The company added that the deal was the largest of its kind in African financial technology firms.
Cellulant said the new investment would enable the company to expand into new markets and to also invest in its existing operations.
Digital financial services are a growing area for other firms on the continent, including Kenyan telecoms operator Safaricom, which pioneered transferring money via mobile phones with its M-Pesa platform in 2007.