Paga gets global ranking for mobile payments, digital services

Paga, a payment and digital financial services company has been listed by CB Insights in the prestigious Fintech 250, a select group of emerging private companies working on ground-breaking financial technology.

The Chief Executive Officer, CB Insights and co-founder, Anand Sanwal, revealed the Fintech 250 companies during The Future of Fintech, a gathering of the world’s largest financial institutions, best Fintech start-ups, and most active venture investors.

“The financial services industry will see more change in the next 10 years than it has in the last 100. And this transformation is being driven by a group of smart disruptive start-up companies.

“The Fintech 250 are the most promising of these insurgents. They are bringing emerging technologies and business models to financial services that will permanently change the way we handle money and do business,” Sanwal said.

Founded in 2009, and launched to the market fully in 2012, Paga is now delivering payments and digital financial services with a mission to transform lives via innovative and universal access to financial services. In just over four years, the company now has six million users on its platform.

The Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Paga, Tayo Oviosu, said: “We are honoured by the selection by CB Insights list for 2017. This recognition is for our team and investors and is a great recognition of our progress to date.

“Paga is well on its way to bank the millions of unbanked in Nigeria and solve the payment challenges of all Nigerians – both banked and unbanked. We are doing this by taking a multi-stakeholder approach as we build out a robust ecosystem.

“That ecosystem is anchored by our strong network of agents – currently over 12,000 women and men who are entrepreneurs in their local communities that offer safe locations to access financial services.”

Many Nigerians struggle with two financial problems – ease of payments, and access to financial services, which Paga now addresses through online and mobile phone.

These include a short code payment platform *242# and accessible on any mobile phone, mypaga.com as well as mobile apps, and through its network of over 12,000 retail agents across 36 states in Nigeria.

The CB Insights research team selected the Fintech 250 companies based on several factors including data submitted by the companies and the company’s Mosaic Score. The Mosaic Score, based on CB Insights’ National Science Foundation-funded algorithm, measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies.

Through this evidence-based, statistically-driven approach, the Mosaic Score can help predict a company’s momentum, market health and financial viability.

Companies such as Affirms, Stripe, Robinhood, Acorns, Nav, and Blue Vine are also being recognised for their innovations in front of an audience of 1000 senior executives from around the world, and news outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Reuters and Bloomberg.

These 250 emerging private companies have raised $14billion across 240 deals in 2016, with applications of their technology making breakthroughs in insurance, lending, payments, human resources, real estate, and much more.

SOURCE:GUARDIAN