Airtel Money is worth $7 billion because Africa never got UPI
The post Airtel Money is worth $7 billion because Africa never got UPI appeared first on The Ken .
Airtel Money, an African mobile-money company, has reached a valuation of $7 billion, driven by the continent's limited adoption of Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The firm, with a workforce of just over 300 employees, generated $1.35 billion in revenue last fiscal year, translating to more than $4 million per employee.
A key driver behind Airtel Money's success is its extensive network of over 2.3 million agents, primarily small-shop owners, spread across 13 African countries. These agents facilitate cash withdrawals and transactions, acting as the primary interface between users and the digital wallet.
The process is simple: users deposit money into their Airtel Money wallets, which is then withdrawn as physical cash at an agent's shop. This cash can be used for various expenses, including food, rent, and shopkeeper payments. If the user needs to transfer money to someone else, they can deposit physical cash back into the wallet and send it digitally, with the recipient following the same steps to access the funds.
While Airtel Money is not the largest player in the African mobile-money market, it does benefit from its parent company's reach. Airtel Africa, the telecommunications firm that controls Airtel Money, offers the service to its customers, leveraging the fact that only Airtel mobile subscribers can open a wallet. Moreover, Airtel Money is one of the company's biggest revenue generators, receiving approximately $265 million from Airtel Africa last fiscal year, accounting for a fifth of its revenue.
Written by urgent.news from The Ken's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
