- UK-based TerraPay, a digital payments provider focused on remittance transfers in Africa, has raised $95 million in debt financing to enhance low-cost remittance transactions across Africa, boost business activities, and improve reliability and transaction speed.
- TerraPay received $75 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and a $20 million senior secured loan from British International Investment (BII) through Lendable’s existing senior secured facility.
The IFC’s package consists of a $30 million loan from IFC's account, a B Loan of $15 million from ILX under IFC’s B Loan Program, and a combined parallel loan of $30 million from development finance institutions OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I and BIO.
The fintech boosts of integrating and connecting with major markets and money transfer operators such as Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria.
With these funds, TerraPay aims to expand its operations by leveraging partnerships with more global money transfer operators, increasing the volume of transfers it processes across Africa. It also plans to reduce costs, enhance speed, and simplify international remittance.
Additionally, TerraPay has partnered with enza, a payments technology company focused on African banks, to enhance payment acceptance and simplify cross-border payments.
Previously, in July 2023, Safaricom collaborated with TerraPay to enable over 32 million M-PESA customers to send and receive money to over 200 million people in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, this is not IFC's first financing in TerraPay. In 2019, IFC invested $8 million in the fintech’s Series A funding round. Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO of the company acknowledged the longstanding support, saying it has fueled its mission in strengthening its infrastructure, expanding its network, and creating solutions.
For Aliou Maiga, IFC’s Regional Industry Director for the Financial Institutions Group for Africa, the partnership will support digital payment infrastructure that empowers individuals and small businesses.
Specifically, BII noted that its funding in TerraPay will be used as part of TerraPay’s working capital to pre-fund growing remittance volumes to Africa, prioritising key African corridors, with high volumes expected in Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon, Mali, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Mozambique.