Chipper Cash launches in South Africa with free P2P money transfer service

African fintech, Chipper has now launched its money transfer and cross-border payment services in South Africa. South Africans can now enjoy free unlimited instant domestic money transfers, invest in cryptocurrencies, and buy and send airtime and data to loved ones.

This was contained in a statement made available on Thursday. The South African launch brings its total African network to seven African countries, which include Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.

In 2019, South Africa had around 11 million unbanked people. This left many people seeking alternative options for domestic remittances, which serves as a lifeline to the 24 million South Africans who send money to family and friends daily. More so, there are 7.7 million people who moved to other provinces for work, resulting in over R157 billion being moved across provinces annually.

With the introduction of Chippercash to that economy, people can instantly purchase airtime and data from leading South African network providers to send to friends and family.

Chipper Cash’s speed, very low cost and user-friendliness challenge the high fees, complicated processes, and slow transfer times of traditional money transfer. Its interface is intuitive, simple and makes sending money to friends and family as simple and instant as sending a text.

Speaking on the expansion, Chipper Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships in Africa, Pardon Mujakachi, noted that domestic remittances are a lifeline for many families in South Africa and Chipper’s mission is to make the process more seamless and cost-effective for them.

He said:

Over R157 billion moves between provinces every year, with people sending money to their families and friends. This is not only the result of the 7.7 million people who moved to other provinces for work, but it is the overall 24 million South Africans who send money to each other daily. Chipper Cash’s free, fast and easy domestic P2P service is now available to them all. We believe it gives South Africans the freedom to instantly send money anywhere in the country from their mobile phones,”

Making cross-border money transfers easy and affordable for Africans

Chipper was founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi (CEO) and Maijid Moujaled (President) after their brief time working at big names like Facebook, Flickr and Yahoo. The startup is headquartered in San Francisco, USA with offices in Nigeria, Kenya and the United Kingdom.

The Chipper Cash app was created with the aim of making money transfers easy and efficient for Africans. It also aims to increase access to financial services for the underbanked as well as digitise daily payments to ease the reliance on cash.

In May 2019, Chipper Cash closed a pre-seed round in which they raised $2.4m. This was followed by a $6m seed funding led by Deciens Capital in December 2019. The fintech raised $13.8m in Series A funding in June 2020 and quickly followed it up with a $30m in Series B in November 2020.

But its largest funding round would come in May 2021 when it completed a $100m in Series C funding round to become a unicorn with a valuation of $1.5b.

Chipper Cash total funding over the past 3 years since its launch in 2018 is $152.2m.  The funding rounds had SVB Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Raptor Group, Ribbit Capital with repeated support from 500 Global and Liquid 2 Ventures. The startup has since embarked on a worldwide expansion drive.

Expansion

The African tech unicorn began operations in October 2018 and expanded to Nigeria in September 2019. In an ecosystem that already has big players like Paga and Opay, Chipper Cash has attracted a massive number of users in the short time that it has been in business.

Over the years, Chipper Cash has added investment services and crypto-currency trading options to its services. After its Series C funding round, the company which boasts more than 200 employees announced its plans for more talent acquisition.

The startup currently has about 4 million users on its platform and has averaged 80,000 daily transactions with a value of $100m in payments.