Jun 15, 2022

VantagePay, a payments technology firm located in Mauritius, has announced that Crossfin Holdings has purchased a “significant share” in the company for an undisclosed value. VantagePay was founded in 2018 with the purpose of providing top payment and technology services across Africa. It was previously known as ZappGroup Africa Limited and V2 Limited. VantagePay is a payments company based in Mauritius with offices in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and London. It presently provides payment solutions to prominent Ghanaian banks, telecoms, and fintech companies, with aspirations to grow into many African nations in the next years. Paul Edwards, a co-founder, is a former CEO of MTN and Multichoice, as well as the founder and executive chairman of Emerging Markets Payments (EMP), which was founded in 2010 and became the top pan-African and pan-Middle Eastern payments processor in only six years. “Africa represents a huge market for mobile payments, given the relatively high mobile phone penetration coupled with a relatively low penetration of financial services,” said Edwards. “VantagePay has incorporated the learnings of EMP and other countries, such as China, in developing a business model that enables cost-effective, deep penetration of payment services into African markets.” VantagePay’s CEO and co-founder, Barry Lobel, expressed his gratitude for Crossfin’s financing. Crossfin is a major independent fintech firm that specializes in payment and smart finance technology. Adumo, South Africa’s premier independent omnichannel payment acquiring firm; Crossgate, a card issuer and alliance banking solution facilitator for retailers, banks, and non-bank institutions; and Retail Capital, an SMME-focused smart financier, are among its portfolio businesses. VantagePay was identified as a potential leader in the African mobile payments industry, according to Crossfin CEO Dean Sparrow. “The business has a superior payments platform that has already been adopted by numerous banks, telcos and fintech platforms and is well placed to expand rapidly across the African continent. It also has a very experienced management team that has proven capability in developing successful pan-African payments companies,” he said. “We feel that Crossfin is an excellent partner for VantagePay and believe they will stand out in an increasingly competitive payments space. We look forward to leveraging the many identified synergies with our portfolio companies whilst also assisting VantagePay in achieving its goal of becoming a leading pan-African payments facilitator.”