South African mobile wallet integration startup Wallettec has rolled out its services in Namibia and Kenya through a partnership with multinational point of sale (PoS) firm EasyPOS, with a Canada launch set for early next year.
Disrupt Africa reported last year Wallettec, a platform provider that specialises in mobile wallet integrations and is used by retailers, mobile banking institutions and other businesses looking to provide their clients with a better experience in banking and payments, was signing integration deals to expand outside of South Africa.
Founder Johan Mayer told Disrupt Africa the company is now operating in Kenya and Namibia, will it will also have integrations in Ghana and Canada by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
“Furthermore, our focus for 2016 is to expand our footprint in Africa and start approaching possible clients in Asia,” he said.
The rollouts in Kenya and Namibia have been taken place as part of a partnership with EasyPOS, which has deployed Wallettec to its customers the two countries. Mayer said he was looking forward to being deployed in all the countries in which EasyPOS operates.
“This partnership makes it possible for customers to pay at the PoS using their M-Pesa account. Bitcoin, Airtel Money and prepaid services will be made available soon to their customer base,” he said.
Mayer said expansion was important for a company like Wallettec, because it works with local banks and payment providers and needs a local presence in each country.
“For that reason we try to set up strategic partnerships in each country. We found that businesses are more likely to work with you if you involve local companies or have local partners,” he said.
“Mobile money integrations are massive in Africa, countries like Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe are all countries where mobile money is extremely popular and people make use of it more than cash.”
Mayer said for that reason Wallettec needs to do its research and target mobile money providers rather than banks.
“But that said, in countries like South Africa, Namibia and Canada mobile payments are becoming more popular and more people have access to bank accounts,” he said.
“For that reasons we concentrate on banks in those countries. Although Wallettec’s instant payment product is more popular in countries like South Africa and Canada due to the amount of people with bank accounts, it does not mean it will work in countries where bank accounts are less popular.”
Wallettec is still operating without any funding, but Mayer said it will be seeking investment in 2016 to boost its expansion efforts.
