While initial reports suggested Moniepoint might acquire Payday, the deal appears to have hit roadblocks, with sources citing Moniepoint’s board’s lack of enthusiasm for the acquisition. Nonetheless, talks to sell the company are ongoing.

However, the startup has faced challenges, including bad press due to fund loss from fraudulent activities. The company temporarily restricted customer accounts after detecting fraudulent activities but didn’t publicly acknowledge it until accusations surfaced. 

Internally, Payday encountered issues, including a contentious salary adjustment. The company reduced the salaries of some Nigerian staff by 30-50% in July, citing the need to align with Naira payments for resident employees. Employees expected their Naira salaries to match their dollar equivalents but were disappointed. Payday promised stock options as compensation, which have yet to materialize.

Furthermore, the departure of several employees, including co-founder and COO Ogechi Obike, raised concerns about misaligned goals and disagreements between the co-founders. Obike’s exit note cited goal misalignment as the reason for her departure, but Payday’s management denied these claims, suggesting she left by mutual agreement.

Favour Ori, the CEO of Payday, has been characterized as making impulsive decisions and occasionally sidestepping the company’s product team. Some customers experienced disruptions when Payday switched its Mastercard provider without adequate vetting. Ori has reportedly reduced his involvement in the company lately, leading some to speculate about his commitment.

Despite these challenges, Payday continues to explore options, including potential acquisition, in the competitive Nigerian fintech landscape.

The fund will help bolster the success of the neobank’s “future of work” initiative focused on ensuring borderless payment alternatives in major currencies.

Moniepoint Inc., initially known as TeamApt Inc, led the oversubscribed seed round which included participation from investors such as Techstars, HoaQ, DFS Lab’s Stellar Africa Fund, Ingressive Capital Fund II. Follow-on investment also came from Angel investors such as MFS Africa Founder and CEO, Dare Okoudjou, as well as Norebase CEO Tola Onayemi. Existing investors like Techstars and Angels Touch also participated.

First launched in 2021 by Favour Ori, Payday started in Rwanda before expanding to Nigeria. The company was the first Rwandan company to join Techstars Toronto Accelerator programme. It enables African remote workers and freelancers to send and receive money in USD, GBP, EUR, and 20 other currencies, making work and payment from international companies easy. 

With over 300,000 users, Payday asserts to have daily new customers over 4,000+, processing an average of 40,000 transactions per day. The company makes monthly revenues by charging a fee on transactions, and its increasing user base keeps boosting this profit rate. 

Recently, PayDay also became a payment partner for SpaceX’s Starlink, facilitating the purchase of Starlink routers by its Nigerian and Rwandan users. In line with this, it affirms to have helped process about $1 million so far.

PayDay seeks to obtain operational licensing in the U.K. and Canada, while expanding operations in the U.K., where it has newly been incorporated.

The fintech is intensifying its marketing and adding more talent as it plans to grow from 35 to 50 employees in the coming weeks. Two Co-Founders have joined Ori – Elijah Kingson from Revolut, who will also function as the CPO and Yvonne Obike, the COO who formerly worked for Nigeria’s Bank of Industry. Sean Udeke, formerly with Goldman Sachs and Expedia, is the new head of products and may oversee new loan and credit card offerings.

TechEconomy.ng’s findings show that the fintech startup headquartered in Rwanda has reached 17,000 users within the first six months of its launch.

PayDay rolled out services in July 2021 and has been regarded as the ‘PayPal of Africa’. The reasons are not far-fetched. PayDay is regarded as the fastest and most efficient way for technology talent and creatives throughout the African continent to receive payments from their global or foreign clients within minutes all on their mobile phones or personal computers.

PayDay also functions as a multiple purposes fintech app that delivers payment of tuition, application and Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) fees in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

Interestingly, the platform enables you to perform these transactions within one to five days maximum.

You can also use the dollar ($) tag to send money to family and friends. This is quite strategic, especially now that the Central Bank of Nigeria has introduced and maintained the “Naira 4 dollar scheme”, where citizens are given back a certain amount of Naira for receiving dollars in their account (home).

More so, PayDay enables you to hold your cash in USD (for stability) and shop with the Virtual card.

For the crypto fans, you can withdraw money to your crypto wallet (BTC), bank account and Momo account.

In a LinkedIn post, Favour Ori, the founder/CEO, revealed that PayDay carried out over 56,000 successful transactions within the period under review.

PayDay which has secured over two million dollars ($2m+) in funding is now available in 10 countries.

The Fintech startup, founded by Nigerian entrepreneur, Favour Ori became the first Rwandan company to join the prestigious Techstars Toronto Accelerator program in 2021.

PayDay is definitely one of the Fintechs to watch in 2021