PalmPay – 10 Brands to Watch 2025
PalmPay
Launched | 2019 (Mobile Money Operator license, CBN) |
Headquarters | Lagos (Ikeja/Opebi, Nigeria) |
Founding & Investors | Seed US $40M (Transsion-led), Series A US $100M; total funding ≈US $140M |
Scale | 35M users, 1M SMEs, 15M daily transactions (tens of billions USD annually) |
Profitability | Profitable by 2025; Series B in talks for US $50–100M |
Revenue | US $64M in 2023; more than doubled since |
Valuation | Just below unicorn at Series A; expected to hit unicorn with Series B |
Awards & Recognition | FT #2 fastest-growing in Africa (2025); 2024 Brandcom Fintech Inclusion award; Marketing Edge Outstanding Payment Platform |
Key Partnerships & Products | Transsion (app pre-install), Verve debit card, insurance, savings, loans; Youth data-protection campaign |
Vision | To become Nigeria’s leading financial super-app for mass inclusion and cross-market expansion |
PalmPay, a mobile-first fintech platform, was launched in Nigeria in 2019 under a Mobile Money Operator license issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Backed by prominent Chinese investors, most notably Transsion and NetEase, PalmPay began with an ambitious seed round of US $40 million, one of the largest for an African startup at the time.
PalmPay’s mission is to digitize everyday financial transactions for mass-market Nigerians,making cashless transfers, bill payments, airtime purchases, savings, loans, and insurance more accessible, affordable, and convenient than cash.
As of mid-2025, it boasts over 35 million registered users, serves approximately one million small-and-medium enterprise clients, and handles 15 million daily transactions, translating to tens of billions of dollars in annual transaction volume. Impressively, 25% of monthly active users discovered their very first financial account with PalmPay, and among credit users, 60% accessed credit for the first time through the platform.
PalmPay has raised about US $140 million across its seed and Series A rounds. It became profitable and by mid-2025, was in advanced talks to raise US $50–100 million in a Series B round to accelerate growth in Nigeria, deepen its business-facing offerings, and expand further into African and Asian markets
