Moniepoint Targets Kenya With New Unicorn Status But Tough Task Awaits

Nigeria’s prominent fintech challenger, Moniepoint, is Africa’s newest unicorn—only the eighth ever—following a USD 110 M Series C funding round led by Development Partners International (DPI), a private equity player. 

The funding, backed by investors such as Google and Verod Capital, brings Moniepoint’s valuation above USD 1 B, cementing its place among Africa’s elite tech companies; a highlight amid a funding lull in African tech.

With its sights set on continental expansion, the company’s first target outside Nigeria is shaping up to be Kenya, insiders say.

“The proceeds from this raise will speed up our efforts to drive financial inclusion and support Africa’s entrepreneurial potential,” Co-Founder/CEO Tosin Eniolorunda said.

Yet, despite its confidence in penetrating new markets, Moniepoint faces a daunting challenge—Kenya’s notoriously tough fintech landscape.

Founded in 2015 by Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, Moniepoint (formerly TeamApt) has built one of Nigeria’s largest business payments and banking platforms, processing over 800 million transactions monthly, with a total transaction value surpassing USD 17 B while operating profitably, as the company’s leadership revealed.

This latest investment round, which also includes support from existing investors like Lightrock, is geared toward scaling Moniepoint’s services across Africa. As Adefolarin Ogunsanya, Partner at DPI, noted, “Moniepoint is well positioned to continue its impressive growth trajectory while driving financial inclusion for underserved businesses and individuals across Africa.” The immediate target? Kenya.

However, Kenya’s fintech environment has a reputation for its challenging nature, primarily due to the market dominance of M-Pesa, Safaricom’s mobile money giant. M-Pesa controls about 97% of Kenya’s mobile money wallets, leaving little room for competitors to make significant inroads into the consumer market.

As Nigerian market intelligence firm Stears highlighted in a recent report, Safaricom’s grip on the market can act as a “significant deterrent to new entrants and innovation.” Consequently, fintechs attempting to compete with M-Pesa directly often struggle to secure footing, limiting their consumer reach.

Data spotlights this challenge. Over the last five years, Kenya has consistently lagged behind Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa in terms of fintech investment, capturing just 8% of the continent’s total compared to Nigeria’s 39%. Investors have shown caution due to M-Pesa’s entrenched position, making Kenya’s fintech ecosystem an uphill battle for new entrants.

Moniepoint’s ambitions in Kenya hinge on its recent approval to acquire Kopo Kopo, a local fintech that facilitates payments and credit to small businesses. This acquisition aligns with Moniepoint’s core strategy, which focuses on providing comprehensive business banking solutions.

By sidestepping direct competition with M-Pesa’s consumer dominance, Moniepoint hopes to cater to underserved MSMEs in Kenya—a market that, while promising, remains challenging. According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, about 49% of local MSMEs face barriers to accessing finance, a higher rate than the African average of 40%.

Ngozi Dozie, co-founder of Nigerian fintech Carbon, which also entered Kenya in late 2019 but since pulled out, has echoed concerns about the market’s viability.

Reflecting on his company’s experience in the closing paragraphs of a June piece, Dozie said, “A few years ago, one of my competitors took me aside and said, “I hear Carbon is expanding to Kenya – don’t do it”. They were already there, and so I am sure part of me was like, so you don’t want me to come and eat goat with you,” he writes.

“Needless to say, we did expand to Kenya and whilst the details are for another article, I wish we had heeded their advice.”

For many startups, compliance issues and steep competition from M-Pesa make survival difficult. The Communications Authority of Kenya reported that nearly 80% of Kenyan startups fold within their first year, highlighting the market’s high-risk nature.

Nonetheless, Moniepoint is pressing forward, aiming to apply its “all-in-one” business model, which includes digital payments, FX, credit, and business management tools.

The company boasts dominance as Nigeria’s largest merchant acquirer and processes a majority of the country’s Point of Sale (POS) transactions. It intends to replicate this model in Kenya, focusing on merchants and enterprises rather than individual consumers.

With the Kopo Kopo deal, Moniepoint is taking a cautious approach by acquiring local expertise and infrastructure rather than attempting to disrupt the market alone.

For now, Moniepoint’s success in Kenya will depend on its ability to navigate a tightly controlled market, balance competition, and forge a path through strategic partnerships.

If Moniepoint can leverage its strength in business banking to serve Kenyan MSMEs where gaps persist, it may find a sustainable entry point. But for fintechs entering Kenya, the dominance of M-Pesa remains a hard reality, showing the complexities of scaling across Africa.