It’s been a very good year for Chipper Cash, the pan-African fintech startup that facilitates cross-border payments in seven key Sub-Saharan African countries. Earlier in the year, Chipper announced that it had launched operations in the UK, and then followed that up with a $100 million Series C funding round in June. Following up with the funding spree, another $150 million Series C extension was announced earlier this month, thus bringing the company’s total funding round this year to $250 million.
Meanwhile, Chipper launched operations in the United States as part of a strategic global expansion aimed at facilitating diaspora remittances to Africa. Emmanuel Abara Benson spoke to the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ham Serunjogi, to learn more about this expansion plan.
Excerpts:
.
It’s nice to finally talk to you, Mr Serunjogi. Congratulations on Chipper Cash’s US launch.
Thank you for making the time. My co-founder Maijid and I started Chipper to solve the intra-Africa remittances problem and have since greatly expanded the product offering. It was always our dream to launch in the US and enable two-way payment flows between the US and Africa, and we’re very excited to have reached that milestone within just three years.
So, with the launch, Chipper Cash now facilitates remittance to Africa from two major diaspora markets. How should we expect this to impact your overall growth?
We believe that in order to truly serve Africa, you must build globally. Connecting the African diaspora in the UK and US is a massive step forward along this journey and will greatly expand the utility of Chipper for Africans on both sides of the ponds.
We understand that payment from the US to Nigeria is free. Is this a strategic decision? If yes, what informed it?
US to Nigeria is a massive remittance corridor and the CBN regulations require payments received in Nigeria from the US to be in USD. So, this was partly strategic as we would have made it free for a limited time and driven by the regulatory framework in Nigeria today.
Let’s talk about Twitter Tips; what is it about and what’s the nature of the partnership you have with it regarding payments to Africa from the US?
Tips is a simple way for anyone to send money to another user on Twitter. While it’s targeted at creators and fans, it’s really a very powerful global payment platform, supporting both fiat and cryptocurrencies. Twitter is an extremely inclusive and forward-looking company and was open to unlocking this opportunity for African creators and fans and we’re very happy to be the only payments app supported for African users today.
Chipper Cash announced a $100 million Series C in June this year and we believe that has contributed to the expansion we’ve seen since then. Any future capital raise in the future?
Yes! We just announced a $150million Series C extension led by FTX, making the Series C total $250 million. Partnering with FTX reflects the deep alignment in vision between FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Maijid, and myself. We’re thrilled to have FTX’s support!
Talk us through your expansion plans going into 2022. There are still African countries where your service is currently unavailable. What plans do you have for them?
2022 will be a year of continued expansion and growth in new and current markets. we’re planning on opening more countries in Southern Africa and a few key Central & West African countries. Our compliance and regulatory teams are working tirelessly to deepen partnerships with regulators and this will continue at a furious pace in 2022.
Here’s a follow up question – although companies such as yours have tried to simplify remittance to Africa, some people still find it difficult to do so; especially freelancers hoping to receive payments from abroad. What could be done to change that?
With chipper available in the US and UK and across 8 countries in Africa we think it’s super well positioned to meet the needs of freelancers. If you are a designer based in Kampala doing work for a US company – Chipper is an instant and low cost solution for getting paid. And with Twitter tips, you can now not only connect with the best creators and freelancers in the world, but now you can also actually pay them directly on the platform.
Let’s talk about you for a moment. You and Maijid co-founded Chipper Cash in 2018 and barely three years later, it has become this successful. How does that make you feel, really? And what factors do you think are beyond your success?
While I’m constantly amazed that Chipper has been so well received, Maijid and I knew how painful the problem was. Our global team has done an incredible job staying close to our users, shipping globally while optimizing locally. Chipper’s continued success is really a reflection of the team’s boldness and execution across so many fronts, product, partnerships, and compliance, just to name a few.
Have you faced any challenges doing business across continents? If yes, how do you navigate these challenges?
There have been many challenges operating across multiple countries with different regulatory frameworks, the key is to keep learning and improving, and making sure we’re working closely with our ecosystem partners and regulators. We’re building Chipper for the long term, and don’t expect this to be easy but know just how important it is for billions of people across the continent to have access to critical financial services.
Kindly give some business advice to aspiring entrepreneurs who may be having some challenges at the moment.
My partnership with Maijid has played such an important role in the growth of Chipper and my personal development as a CEO. I think it’s so important for entrepreneurs to work with co-founders that share the same dream but actually complement each other with unique skills.
Discussion about this post