African fintech company Zoona recently secured $15m in a second round of financing since launching in Zambia in 2009. CEO Mike Quinn discusses the business and future plans.
In 2009, Zambian-born brothers Brad and Brett Magrath launched Zoona in Zambia, together with current CEO Mike Quinn. Zoona was initially aimed at trying to solve the problem of payments in the agricultural sector. At the time, Zambia’s cash economy saw 85% of the adult population unbanked.
Meanwhile, in Kenya, mobile money player M-Pesa (see sidebar) started taking off and the Magraths looked at the possible opportunity of also introducing money transfers in the Zambian market.
“We officially launched in April 2009 with a couple of products, one being farmer payments and the other a money transfer product that would help people send money within the country,” Quinn tells finweek. In order to facilitate this, Zoona started setting up agents next to post offices, bus stops and border posts and would work with young entrepreneurs – and people looking for jobs straight out of high school – and provide them with a kiosk.
“We would provide all the funding for working capital that they needed to run their business, and then give them an account on the technology platform we built so that consumers could walk up to these kiosks to send and receive money transfers for any reason that would require them to move money around in the cash economy, such as paying school fees or medical bills,” explains Quinn.
Getting the funding
Over the next three years, they integrated the model, and in 2012 Zoona received a $4m Series A investment, at which point the focus turned onto the money transfer business, which had really taken off.
This story is from the 01 September 2016 edition of Finweek English.
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This story is from the 01 September 2016 edition of Finweek English.
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