Opera’s payment platform, OPay, has raised $120 million in a series B investment round, led by Chinese investors, putting the total funds raised since launch in May 2018 at about $200 million.
This round had nine investors compared to the $50 million raised in June 2019 by five investors.
According to a report by Techcrunch, this was confirmed by Opera’s CFO, Frode Jacobsen, who disclosed that the fund would be deployed towards OPay’s high-frequency use services like transportation, food, and other daily priority services.
Opera’s CEO and OPay’s chairman, Yahui Zhou, also confirmed in a statement that the fund would facilitate OPay’s expansion into African countries with favourable fintech ecosystems including Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya.
Apparently, this recent trend indicates that Chinese investors’ interests have piqued towards the African startup space, especially in fintech. Fresh instances being PalmPay’s $40 million seed fund from Transsion earlier in the month, Lori Systems raising a combined $240 million from Chinese investors and GONA raising a multi-million dollar Pre-A with participation from Shaka VC.
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In barely two years since entering the Nigerian market, OPay has not only competed against other payment startups, it also plays in ride-hailing and food delivery, quick loans, online betting and savings.