Nigerian credit-led digital banking platform FairMoney has acquired PayForce (sub-brand of YC-backed CrowdForce), a merchant payment services that serves small businesses, as the digital lender looks to broaden its financial services proposition to merchants.
Both startups declined to disclose the terms of the deal. However, according to sources, the transaction was a cash-and-stock deal in the range of $15 million to $20 million. As part of the deal, CrowdForce CEO Oluwatomi Ayorinde joins FairMoney, where he will head the company’s payments business unit: PayForce by FairMoney.
Most African consumers and businesses remain financially underserved — and in Nigeria, where 64 million people, according to the World Bank, are underbanked, there’s a massive opportunity to provide access to financial services to both sets of customers.
While FairMoney has predominantly operated a credit-led neobanking play targeting retail customers, CrowdForce, through PayForce, provides agency banking…
