BitPesa

BitPesa
Private
Industry Bitcoin, Payments, FinTech, Blockchain
Founded 2013
Founder Elizabeth Rossiello
Headquarters Nairobi, Kenya
Products Financial Services
Number of employees
 68 (May 2018)
Website www.bitpesa.co Edit this on Wikidata

BitPesa is a digital foreign exchange and payment platform for frontier markets.

History

BitPesa was founded in November 2013 with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and offices and staff in Lagos, London, Luxembourg, Dakar and Madrid.

By the end of May 2014, BitPesa launched its beta site with a service that allowed users to send money to any mobile money wallet in Kenya.[1] At the end of December 2014, customers in Kenya could buy bitcoins on the platform. BitPesa launched in Tanzania in May 2015 allowing customers to send Tanzanian Shillings to three mobile networks in the country.

In November 2015, BitPesa launched in Nigeria and Uganda.[2]

In February 2015, BitPesa announced that it had raised US$1.1 million in a second round of funding led by San Francisco-based Pantera Capital.[3] By January 2017, BitPesa had closed a $2.5 million Series A funding round to focus on becoming the largest licensed payment company in the UK, Europe and Africa that offers real-time settlement at wholesale FX rates to frontier markets.[4] By August 2017, BitPesa had raised $10 million Series A funding led by Greycroft Partners.[5]

In November 2017, BitPesa serves both African and international businesses making payments to and from Africa in additional countries, including Senegal and the DRC.[6]

In February 2018, BitPesa acquired TransferZero, an online money transfer company in Spain.[7][8] BitPesa launched its services in Ghana in March 2018.[9]

BitPesa along with one more startup from Kenya made to World Economic Forum’'s 2018 Technology Pioneers Cohort.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ Vignia, Paul (23 May 2014). "Kenya's BitPesa Launches Beta Test of Remittance Service". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Vignia, Paul (9 November 2015). "Bitcoin-Startup BitPesa Expands Into Nigeria, Uganda". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Daily Digest: Hong Kong Issues Bitcoin Warning, Russia Reconsiders Stance, and BitPesa Raises US$1.1 Million". Cointelegraph. 10 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "Kenya's BitPesa closes $2.5m funding round". Disrupt Africa. 2017-01-30. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  5. ↑ Shin, Laura. "Bitcoin Payments Firm BitPesa Secures Greycroft As Lead Investor For $10 Million Total Funding". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  6. ↑ "Bitpesa Has Grown Beyond Kenya And Can Still Win Lawsuit Against Safaricom". Cointelegraph. 19 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Kenya's BitPesa acquires European money transfer platform". Disrupt Africa. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  8. ↑ "Blockchain payments company BitPesa makes its first acquisition". Retrieved 2018-06-08.
  9. ↑ "BitPesa launches in Ghana to expand West African footprint". Disrupt Africa. 2018-03-21. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  10. ↑ Uncova. "Two Kenyan startups make it into WEF's 2018 Technology Pioneers Cohort". Uncova.com. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  11. ↑ "Two Kenyan startups in global list of Technology Pioneers 2018 - Business Today News". businesstoday.co.ke. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.