The Latest Fintech Retreat: a $2 Billion Challenger to Western Union Suspends U.S. Services

In the go-go days of 2020–22, venture capitalists poured billions of dollars into African payment startups, enthusiastic about their potential to revolutionize access to financial services on the African continent. Among the lucky startups was Chipper Cash, a San Francisco–based firm that raised $300 million from Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions, Ribbit Capital and others. In 2021, Chipper expanded into the U.S., advertising instant, no-fee fund transfers to the diaspora of African immigrants wanting to send money home.

The service should have been popular. For decades, immigrants had little choice but to pay money transfer agents such as Western Union and small currency dealers as much as 10% of the transaction to transfer funds abroad. But things didn’t go according to plan. After failing to gain enough traction, and facing a diminishing reserve of cash, Chipper—most recently valued at $2.2 billion—told customers in the U.S. that it was suspending international money transfer services from the country.