Fundamo, a South Africa-based financial services technology provider backed by some of the country’s largest companies, has agreed a $110m exit to credit card provider Visa.
Local financial services group Sanlam, conglomerate Remgro as well as HBD Venture Capital (which stands for Here Be Dragons and now managed by PoweredbyVC) had backed Fundamo, which provides mobile financial services, including person-to-person payment, airtime top-up, bill payment and branchless banking services, to five million subscribers from unbanked and under-banked consumers in 40 countries.
Visa said it had also struck a commercial agreement with UK-listed Monitise to provide mobile money solutions for financial institutions in more developed geographies.
Last month, Visa said its global strategy was "to provide the next generation of payments solutions, enabling consumers to transact wherever and whenever they choose, using a card, a computer or a mobile device".