Orange Digital Ventures Africa announces its latest investment on the African continent by leading the $1.5m seed investment round in Youverify. The start-up, founded in Lagos, Nigeria automates identity and background verification processes, primarily serving financial and telecommunication service providers. Youverify is the fifth company to join the portfolio of Orange group’s African investment initiative.
The $1.5 million investment round will help Youverify improve its technology and accelerate business development in Nigeria and the continent.
After securing approval last summer from the “Bank Al Maghrib”,Orange has announced today as well that they launch Orange Money in Morocco, confirming thsi way their position as a major player in mobile money in Africa and the Middle East
Orange Money offers every mobile user, regardless of their telecom operator, the option of having a mobile wallet backed by their phone number. The solution allows mobile phone users to carry out financial transactions, pay for phone recharges remotely or withdraw money from their Orange Money wallets at points of sale approved by Orange Money Maroc.
Non-Orange customers can take advantage of the service by downloading the mobile application.
Mobile money is revolutionising Africa’s economy. A key driver in the continent’s economic growth, Orange Money is a real vehicle for increasing the financial inclusion of populations and the digitalisation of the continent
Financial and mobile payment services continue to accelerate their development on the continent. Verification tasks remain complex and manual for major players, fintech and large corporates and the rise of RegTech companies, such as Youverify, is key for the market in order to speed up and simplify these tasks.
Around 300,000 customer registrations and verifications sicne 2018
Co-founded by Gbenga Odegbami, the company’s CEO, Youverify aims to help companies automate the verification processes of different types of data treated seperately today, such as identity, academic background, home address, credit history , facial recognition, for example. while respecting the highest standards of regulation and data protection.
“Matters of security and access to financial or telecommunications services should never be at odds with each other. Telecom operators like Orange are at the forefront of these transformational challenges. We are proud to support Youverify, which intends to resolve this triple objective of fostering financial inclusion, strengthening security and preserving user rights over their data,” said Grégoire de Padirac, Investment Manager at ODV.
Since its launch in Lagos in 2018, Youverify has already performed more than 300,000 customer registrations and verifications for some of Nigeria’s largest banks and financial companies.
Inclusive banking available in 18 countries for 45 mill customers
Launched in 2008, the Orange Money mobile money solution allows millions of people excluded from the banking system to be able to deposit, withdraw, transfer and make payments easily and simply from their mobile phone, with complete security. 12 years on since its launch, Orange Money continues to record exponential growth. The service is now available in 18 countries. 45 million customers trust this solution and the amount of transactions carried out through Orange Money reached 2.6 billion euros in 2019.
Image over the headline.- Orange Money kiosk at Burkina Fasso (Africa).© Orange
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