Visa has just agreed to acquire Cape Town, South Africa-based Fundamo, a mobile financial services company that caters to network operators and financial institutions in developing countries. The cost? A paltry $110 million for Visa, which should turn out quite well for its global mobile payments efforts. Why is this important?
According to TechCrunch:
Here’s how the duo of agreements was pitched:
The combination of acquiring Fundamo and expanding the relationship with Monitise will enable Visa to deliver best-in-class mobile financial services and payments capabilities to consumers across the full spectrum of uses, geographies and mobile environments from basic services on simple handsets to more advanced services for smart phone owners.
Fundamo’s platform enables the delivery of mobile financial services to unbanked and under-banked consumers around the world, including person-to-person payments, airtime top-up, bill payment and branchless banking services.
Fundamo currently has a subscriber base of 5 million, which might not seem much, but with Visa’s help and its mobile financial services, it can reach up to 180 million users worldwide.
[Via: TechCrunch]