MFS Africa Acquires B2B digital payments Startup, Beyonic to Bring Global Payment Services to African SMEs

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MFS Africa, Africa’s largest digital payments hub has acquired Beyonic, a digital payments management provider for SMEs and fintechs across Africa.

The exact cost of the acquisition was not disclosed but it was paid for in cash and shares. Although the acquisition has been completed, it still remains subject to regulatory approval by the Fair Competition Commission in Tanzania.

Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa, and Luke Kyohere, co-founder and CTO of Beyonic.

As part of the acquisition, Beyonic founder Luke Kyohere will join MFS Africa’s leadership team. Beyonic’s team will also be absorbed into MFS Africa while its core product retains its name under MFS wider brand.

Speaking about the acquisition, Beyonic founder, Luke Kyohere said that MFS mission aligned with Beyonic’s goal and that together they will create the broadest digital payment platform in Africa.

“MFS Africa’s mission to make borders matter less in digital payments aligns perfectly with Beyonic’s vision of helping enterprises deliver fast, affordable fintech solutions to the last mile, where they are needed the most. Together, we will give our customers access to the broadest and deepest digital payment network in Africa.”

Luke Kyohere, founder of Beyonic

Global Payment Services for African SMEs

With connections to a network of operators in 34 African countries, MFS Africa is a fintech hub enabling users to send and receive money between platforms, without transaction fees associated with crossing platforms.

It has an estimated 200 million customers interacting across various digital wallets. Popular digital payment services like MTN mobile money, Paga, and Safaricom are some of the top operators integrated into MFS Africa hub.

MFS Africa Acquires Beyonic to Bring Global Payment Services to African SMEs

Beyonic, on the other hand, offers a professional enterprise digital payment services suite to SMEs with its simple, sector-agnostic, two-way payments management toolbox. It gives enterprises access to 26 mobile money networks and over 20 banks in nine countries including Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda.

The acquisition creates a larger, more versatile company that fuses the two facets of financial services. Combining the services of both companies also creates interoperability between digital operators of value on one hand and enterprise mobile payments on the other.

According to Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa, the new combination of both companies will create a wealth of opportunities for African SMEs, fintechs, and other social impact organisations to access global payment services.

“With the MFS Africa Hub, we have been creating new digital pathways between mobile money users in Africa and the global economy. With the acquisition of Beyonic, we can now put this digital payment network at the service of those entrepreneurs whether they are SMEs, fintechs, or social impact organisations. By combining MFS Africa’s and Beyonic’s assets and capabilities, we can unleash the wealth of opportunity that business within Africa and with Africa presents to the wider world.”

Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa

The Extended access and functionality to be offered in the wake of the acquisition will become available to customers of both organisations in the second half of 2020.

MFS Africa’s recent partnership with Visa enables them to issue Visa payment credentials across their pan-African network.

This means that local SMEs in Ghana that uses Beyonic to manage digital payments mobile wallets and bank accounts in the country will be able to reach additional markets in Africa and the rest of the world directly and seamlessly using the same interface, leveraging on the pan-African and global connections of the MFS Africa Hub.


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