Sign up for our free daily newsletter
Get the latest news and some fun stuff
in your inbox every day
As we know, Visa is a very profitable company operating in payments; a fast growing sector with lots of innovation. When you are that profitable, you are at risk of disruption. That is why Visa continues to snap up stakes in exciting payments companies.
The latest is in Africa and it is sizeable. Visa to snap up stake in African fintech unicorn Interswitch.
Visa will be buying 20% of the company for $200m. That values the Nigeria based company at $1bn.
According to Wikipedia, Interswitch was founded in 2002. Its primary function is to link different banks in Nigeria as well as supply technology for ATM withdrawals. Its debit card brand called Verve has 18 million cards in circulation in Nigeria.
The valuation is impressive. I wonder what MTN and their mobile money product in Nigeria is worth?