China-Backed African Payment Startup OPay Raising $400 Million to Fuel Expansion

OPay, an African digital payment upstart founded by the Chinese tech billionaire who once owned Grindr, is in talks with investors to raise as much as $400 million at a valuation of more than $1.5 billion, three times its most recent valuation, two people familiar with the matter said. A bigger war chest could help accelerate the app’s expansion into new markets and services.

OPay started in 2018 in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country with 200 million people, and expanded into Egypt earlier this year. Its new fundraising talks come as Chinese investors, confronting a more hostile political climate in the U.S., are increasingly looking at other countries including in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.