In 2019, the fintech, which has been incubated at Orange for the past two years, raised seed funding to extend its offering to other operators on the continent. Its service offering is based on a platform facilitating the acceptance of mobile payments already processing over 100 million transactions per month.
A commercial, technical and financial platform
Bizao has developed a commercial, technical and financial platform designed to meet the mobile payment needs of under-banked populations in emerging zones. The company found that while 400 million accounts have been opened in sub-Saharan Africa, marking a 40% increase in 3 years, for the vast majority of users this solution is limited to transferring money between individuals. The main challenge for businesses is to integrate local payment methods that are both simple and fast.
The platform created by Bizao offers a one-stop mobile payment service for merchants. It acts as anintermediary between mobile content providers and users, who can access it with a credit-loaded phone chip. This solution benefits both the general public, by opening the door to a wide range of services and content, and merchants, who can rapidly establish themselves in a fast-growing market.
Target: 500 million transactions per month by 2020
Today, Bizao is present in 5 countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso. The fintech mainly targets African-based content publishers (streaming audio, video games, etc.) and local companies (insurance, transport, energy, etc.) looking to digitalize their business. Its platform processes an average of 100 million transactions a month, with the aim of multiplying this volume by 5 by 2020.
The startup, which employs around twenty people, plans to double its workforce within a year. It also plans to develop an IT center of excellence in Dakar to ensure the operation and evolution of its platform, as well as IT support. On October 4, 2019, Bizao announced an undisclosed amount of seed funding. This funding should enable it to rapidly tackle 5 new countries.
The Orange-based start-up is now making its mark on the African market by facilitating partnerships with local operators, optimizing the purchasing experience whatever the payment method (web, app, USSD, SMS...), and accepting all currencies. Now fully independent, Bizao is well placed to take on other payment aggregators such as WecashUp and MonetBil.