Three-year-old African fintech raises $22M to accelerate continental payments platform
Moment, a pan-African fintech, today announced the close of its $22 million (around R364 million) Series A funding round, led by AlphaCode Venture Partners, with continued investment from General Catalyst, MultiChoice, and fresh investment from Canal+.
Since inception, Moment has raised $55 million (more than R900 million) to develop one of the continent’s most advanced payment infrastructure businesses, offering a comprehensive suite of payment collection and revenue retention solutions to corporate and enterprise merchants. The company will use the additional funding from this Series A round to deepen its network, enhance its platform and accelerate expansion across Africa.
Dominique Collett, General Partner at AlphaCode Venture Partners, explains, “Africa’s payment complexity has long been a hidden tax on commerce – on every business trying to grow here, and on every household trying to participate in the digital economy. Moment is dismantling that barrier in a way we haven’t seen before, at continental scale, compliantly, and with a product that the market’s largest enterprises have already validated. We’re backing Joel Yarbrough, Moment’s CEO, and his team as they build a defining piece of Africa’s financial infrastructure.”
Africa’s payment landscape is notoriously fragmented, with local payment behaviour varying dramatically across markets. In South Africa, over two-thirds of payments are still made in person at retail locations despite high bank penetration. In Nigeria, instant bank transfers dominate, with strong competition from cash, cards, and digital wallets. In other markets, mobile money platforms have thrived due to low bank penetration, but are fragmented across dozens of operators, with no single provider able to offer merchants unified collections across all channels.
