Baxi by Onafriq, a leading payment service provider; FairMoney Microfinance Bank and KongaPay, a licensed mobile money operator known for its seamless and secure payment solutions are now part of Zone’s expanding ecosystem.

Zone, a regulated blockchain network that enables payments and acceptance of regulated digital currencies, is Africa’s fastest-growing payment infrastructure company.

This development follows the company’s recent launch of its decentralized PoS Payment Gateway product, ZonePOS, and the strategic partnership with Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc to decentralise Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) functions using Blockchain Technology.

This development builds upon the recent onboarding of some of Africa’s largest and most prominent financial institutions—First Bank, UBA, and Zenith Bank—to Zone’s regulated blockchain network.

The addition of Baxi, FairMoney and KongaPay demonstrates the applicability and appeal of Zone’s technology across various segments of the financial services industry.

Zone secured a payment switching and processing license from the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2022, making its payment infrastructure Africa’s first regulated blockchain network for payments.

By integrating with Zone’s regulated blockchain network, Baxi, FairMoney, and KongaPay will significantly enhance their payment processing capabilities, benefiting from:

1. Direct Transaction Routing: Eliminating intermediaries and reducing failure points, resulting in faster, more reliable, and more scalable transaction processing at lower costs.
2. End-to-End Transparency: Providing automatic reconciliation, which eliminates chargebacks and prevents chargeback fraud.
3. Same-Day Settlement: Delivering quicker value for successful transactions to financial institutions and their customers.

Obi Emetarom, CEO and co-founder of Zone, commented on the announcement:

“We are excited to welcome Baxi, FairMoney, and KongaPay to our network. Their integration is an important step in our journey to advance the payment landscape in Africa and beyond. It underscores the growing trust in our technology and its ability to deliver on our promise of reliable, frictionless, and universally interoperable payment experiences across various financial service verticals. As we continue to expand and enhance our payment network, we remain committed to connecting every monetary store of value and enabling a truly inclusive financial ecosystem.”

This expansion of Zone’s network, coupled with its recent partnership with NIBSS to enhance Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) operations using blockchain technology, demonstrates the growing acceptance and transformative potential of regulated blockchain in mainstream finance.

It sets a new standard for payment processing in Nigeria and potentially across Africa and other emerging markets, promising improved customer experiences and operational efficiency, along with reduced transaction costs, and enhanced financial inclusion.

WhoGoHost, West Africa’s largest cloud infrastructure company, has today announced the acquisition of SendChamp, the cloud communications startup that powers online messaging for African businesses for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition is part of WhoGoHost’s strategic plans to deepen its value offering for its customer base.

Founded by Goodness Kayode and Damilola Olotu in 2021, SendChamp is a cloud communications provider that allows businesses to send and receive customer messages across different channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, email, and voice.

Over the last 2 years, the startup has worked with over 6000 businesses including Surebet247, Baxi, Chowdeck, Wirepay by Maplerad, Bumpa, and TeamApt.

In 2021, SendChamp had previously announced a $100,000 angel round from local syndicates including DFS Lab, Hustler Capital, HoaQ Club, Velocity Digital and a couple of other angel investors— the only round raised to date.

While the cost is undisclosed, the acquisition carries potential positives for all parties involved. Whogohost stands to benefit from SendChamp’s product suite across marketing messages, OTP, and customer support systems, deepening its value proposition, while SendChamp will benefit from its access to Whogohost’s over 100,000 customer databases.

Speaking on the acquisition, Goodness Kayode, CEO at SendChamp, said, “We received offers from a number of businesses across diverse industries at different points in our journey but ultimately went with Whogohost when an offer came given the synergies between our products and strategic positioning are clear. With this acquisition, we get to keep building SendChamp as an interoperable product within Whogohost’s integrated platform.”

At Whogohost, the acquisition of SendChamp is regarded as the first in a strategic series of steps that will see the company transform from a domain and hosting infrastructure company to a diverse digital services platform that focuses on domains, online presence, communication, and online commerce products.

Opeyemi Awoyemi Founder at Whogohost had this to say about the acquisition, “Over the last 16 years, Whogohost has provided domain hosting services to hundreds of thousands of businesses. The acquisition of SendChamp presents us with a unique opportunity to evolve our business from domain-hosting to a one-stop shop for digital services for entrepreneurs and businesses in Africa. We’re excited about what this means for us.”

According to both companies, SendChamp will continue to operate as an independent product in the months following the acquisition as it transitions to new ownership. However, soon, its products and services will become accessible via the Whogohost integrated platform. The reason for this is to allow for a smooth transition with minimal interruption to existing customer service.

As part of the acquisition deal, the CEO & CTO of Sendchamp and some members of the Sendchamp team will be joining Whogohost. Goodness Kayode will join as the Chief Product Officer while Damilola Olotu as the Chief Technology Officer of Whogohost.

Goodness Kayode and Damilola Olotu, Sendchamp is a cloud-based communication platform that allows businesses to send and receive messages to their customers across different channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, email, and voice.

Sendchamp has onboarded over 6000+ businesses across its API and No-code CRM tool product processing over 50m+ messages across messaging channels with customers ranging from VC-backed startups to enterprise businesses like Prudential Zenith, Surebet247, Baxi, Chowdeck, Wirepay by Maplerad, and Bumpa, among others.