MFS Africa acquires GTP for $34M

MFS Africa, a pan-African digital payments company, is acquiring Global Technology Partners (GTP) in a cash-and-shares deal worth $34 million, according to the Financial Times.

There aren’t many deals like this, where an African tech company buys a company situated in the United States. While it may appear to some as bragging rights, MFS Africa made the transaction out of need, for its next phase of growth.

MFS Africa’s infrastructure unifies Africa’s different payment methods into a single, unified network, allowing individuals and businesses in mobile money ecosystems to interact across borders and currencies.

The London-based startup, which focuses on Africa, connects over 320 million mobile money wallets across 35 African countries and 700 corridors. Despite these cross-border connections, millions of Africans are still unable to use their mobile money accounts to pay for foreign subscription-based services such as Netflix and Amazon.

GTP is a prepaid and mobile payment software company. Its prepaid and mobile payment network, according to PitchBook, connects many prepaid cards with a single bank account and allows customers to make prepaid purchases for online shopping and ATMs.