Swiss impact investor Blue Earth Capital has acquired a minority stake in Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech provider of digital banking, payments and credit services for small businesses and individuals.
Blue Earth acquired the stake from British Impact Investment and Moniepoint’s Employee Share Option Program. The GP-led secondary purchase also involved British investment firm Lightrock, a repeat investor that participated in Moniepoint’s $110 million Series C last year. That round included British private equity firm Development Partners International, Google’s Africa Investment Fund and Nigerian private equity firm Verod Capital.
The secondary transaction returned capital to some of Moniepoint’s early African LPs and offered “life-changing liquidity to our dedicated employees,” said Moniepoint’s Tosin Eniolorunda.
Secondary market
BII had invested $15 million over four rounds in Moniepoint since 2021, to help Moniepoint reach more small businesses and create employment by expanding its agent network across rural areas. This transaction marks the second secondary sales deal between BII and Blue Earth (see, “British International Investment sells stakes to seed impact secondaries market”).
BII sold its stakes in the Aavishkaar Goodwell second India Microfinance Development Company, Novastar Ventures’ second Africa fund and Adenia Capital’s fourth fund to Blue Earth Capital last year.
“Deepening secondary market activity in Africa is a key priority for Blue Earth Capital as we seek to mobilize new investor capital to the continent through enabling access to high impact, category leading businesses,” said Blue Earth’s David Moore.
Series C round
The secondary transaction coincided with Moniepoint’s $90 million Series C extension, led by Development Partners International and LeapFrog Investments, bringing the full round to $200 million.
Dutch investor Alder Tree Investments, Visa, the International Finance Corp., Proparco and Swedfund joined previous investors Verod, Lightrock and Google’s Africa Investment Fund in the round.
The funding will help Moniepoint expand further into Nigeria, Kenya and the United Kingdom, where it introduced remittance services in April this year.
Moniepoint claims nearly a third of the small businesses it serves have not accessed formal credit before. It now serves over four million businesses monthly, processing $26 million payments daily.
