A recent report by Bloomberg affirms that ChipperCash, one of Africa’s more prominent fintech companies and unicorns, is reportedly considering selling the company or seeking new investors.
Bloomberg said the conversations are private, but Chipper Cash debunked the information. Sources who spoke to Bloomberg claim the unicorn is assessing its options, with both another round of investment and a sale on the table.
Chipper Cash said in response to Bloomberg, “It’s been fairly common practise for us to receive numerous M&A approaches from different parties, which we evaluate to varying degrees.” Nonetheless, we have never sought acquisition.
After a $100 million Series B fundraising round led by struggling Silicon Valley Bank, the firm, which is one of Africa’s best-performing fintechs, was valued at $2 billion in late 2021. (SVB). The business was also backed by FTX, a crypto trading firm that shut down amid a withdrawal scandal.
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Chipper cash assures that customers’ activities are not affected
Given all of these unexpected events, experts believe Chipper’s financial sheet has been impacted by these financiers’ downward spiral. Around 150 people have been dismissed by Chipper Cash since December 2022, with the most recent round occurring in February 2023.
However, Chipper Cash CEO Ham Serunjogi has also assured customers that the collapse of SVB had an insignificant effect on the operations of Chipper Cash.
Chipper Cash has many banking partnerships across the globe, including several in the United States, due to the magnitude and complexity of our worldwide operations. In light of this, we only had a very little sum of funds (about $1M) in our SVB account when the bank was seized by the California regulator. We have already gotten confirmation from the FDIC that at least half of our cash is now accessible. In addition, our customers’ activities wherever in the globe were not affected in any way.
The Bank of Ghana authorizes Chipper Cash to facilitate transfers to the U.S.
“We are undoubtedly living in a difficult and unpredictable period, not just in our industry but across the global economy. The events of this week have simply served to underscore this truth, and every firm is being forced to make difficult but necessary adjustments. Has our job cut out for us AT Chipper Cash, we continue to work hard every day towards our purpose of enabling people in Africa to freely move and transact their money.”
Nevertheless, Serunjogi recognised SVB’s influence in Chipper Cash’s early days. “When I was attempting to establish Chipper’s first bank account five years ago, SVB was the only bank that would take us,” he said. “I’m sure there are numerous more startups doing equally vital work who would agree.”