BEIJING (Reuters) – OPay, an Africa-focused digital payment startup founded by a Chinese entrepreneur, said it has secured $400 million in its latest funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing it at $2 billion.
Other investors in the funding round include Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, Meituan-backed fund Long-Z, Redpoint China and 3W Capital, OPay said in a statement on Monday.
OPay, which has notched up 160 million active users in Africa since its launch in 2018, said it will use the capital to invest in African markets including Nigeria and Egypt, as well as Middle Eastern markets.
“We want to be the power that helps emerging markets reach a faster economic development,” said Zhou Yahui, founder and chief executive of OPay, in the statement.
Zhou also founded Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd, which was once the owner of the popular dating app Grindr. Washington had ordered Kunlun to divest Grindr in 2019 amid concerns over the safety of its handling of user data.
(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kim Coghill and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
