IN its resolve to serve as a catalyst for funding innovation and ground-breaking business concepts within the payment industry across Africa, Interswitch, a leading pan-African integrated payment company, has announced the launch of a new US$10 million ‘ePayment Growth Fund.’ 

  The company is seeking to collaborate with African entrepreneurs and start-up businesses developing innovative products and services that empower Africans to participate in the emerging payment ecosystems currently transforming business on the continent.

  Commenting on the development, the Group Managing Director, Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe, explained that “Interswitch is committed to encouraging innovative ideas and developing start-ups across Africa. We created the US$10 million e-payment growth fund to do just that, and it is with great excitement that today we can announce our first investment. ACE is exactly the sort of business we want to support: dynamic, energetic and dedicated to breaking barriers for e-commerce in the African market.” 

  The fund has made its first investment in ‘Africa Courier Express’ (ACE), formerly A-Post, a Nigeria-based and Africa-focused technology-driven e-commerce logistics and warehousing firm. ACE has developed and rolled out a new cutting-edge technology to track, deliver and collect payments seamlessly for and on-behalf of its clients. 

  The company will receive an initial investment of US$850,000 from the Interswitch e-Payment Growth Fund to enable management execute its West Africa expansion plans with the potential to access additional funding. The investment by Interswitch represents the start of a new partnership model to deepen the e-commerce space across Africa.

  Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin, Founders, ACE, said: “We are delighted and very proud to be selected as the first investment from the Interswitch ePayment Growth Fund. This new capital provided through our new partnership with Interswitch, and which is part of a larger US$2.6 million funding, will enable us to accelerate our expansion through Nigeria and beyond into West Africa.”