Globally, there are more than 1 billion mobile money accounts. M-Pesa is a popular mobile money system in East Africa that is used a lot in Africa. It has helped Africa lead in volume and transaction value. Other parts of the continent are also experiencing rapid growth.With 56 million accounts, West Africa was the region with the highest number of mobile money services. Ivory Coast is one of Francophone Africa's largest mobile money markets. 75% of the population has a mobile money account while 20% have bank accounts. This is a staggering difference that clearly shows the region's desire for this service.While mobile money services have been dominated by telecom operators in most of sub-Saharan Africa's sub-Saharan Africa for the longest time, some startups are working to improve mobile money experiences for customers. Julaya, a fintech startup based in Ivory Coast, announced today that it received $2 million in pre-Series A funding. This will allow Julaya to expand its product offerings across West Africa.Mathias Lopoldie, Charles Talbot and Julaya were the founders of Julaya in 2018. They worked for French payment fintech LemonWay in Mali and Burkina Faso before launching Julaya.TechCrunch spoke to Lopoldie about their experience learning how mobile money works in Francophone Africa. LemonWay is a payment platform for online marketplaces. While working to expand fintech services in both countries, the two discovered the huge potential of businesses that could be reached through the high consumer penetration of telecom operators.Julaya was created to digitize trade payments. It started in Ivory Coast, not Mali or Burkina Faso. This platform allows companies to digitize payments to suppliers and workers, allowing them to improve their operations and streamline their accounting.The company assists African institutions and businesses to make mobile payments. This is possible by collaborating with regional telecom operators and fintech startups.Mobile money is reaching a maturity stage, where both business and public institutions can use it to create new opportunities for growth. The digitalization of payments is a pressing need. Talbot stated that West Africa's fintech competition is making digital finance more accessible for consumers. Additionally, technical integrations with telecom operators have become more reliable.These partnerships are not without their challenges. One, payments technology in Francophone Africa is still fragmented and APIs from telecoms remain burgeoning but unreliable.Lopoldie said that distribution channels make it difficult for the company sell en masse at low cost. This is in addition to the distrust of businesses towards digitized payments.A wire transfer in Ivory Coast takes one to three business days. You must also check with your bank branch to confirm that you are a customer. Because of their shortcomings and high costs, businesses don't trust digital experiences. Lopoldie spoke of the difficulties faced by the startup's three-year-old founder.The startup has a French R&D and technical staff and has attracted customers from small businesses to large corporations to government agencies. According to the company, it currently processes over $1.5million monthly for 50 of its customers, including Jumia and SODECI, Ministry of Education. Ivory Coast, and the World Bank.Julaya secured a pre-seed investment in the amount of $250,000 in 2018 as well as a seed investment of $550,000 one year later. All of these investments were made from angel investors. The company also introduced VC firms to its pre-Series A round. These include Orange Ventures and MFS Africa Frontiers corporate venture capital firms; VC firms Saviu Ventures and Launch Africa; 50 Partners Capital; as well as some angel investors in Africa. Julaya will use this investment to expand its market share in Ivory Coast, launch digital payment products, and expand into West Africa.Orange is used by more than 20 million people in 15 African countries to provide mobile money services. It also launched a mobile banking platform for Ivory Coast recently, surpassing 500,000 users. What is the reason for this strategic investment? This marks the third time that it has made an African fintech startup check after South Africa's Yoco and Senegal's SudPay.The African fintech environment is known for its competitiveness, dynamism and dynamism. Orange Group plans to support fintechs like Julaya through its technology investment fund. According to Habib Bamba (director of Transformation, digital, and media at Orange Ivory Coast), the goal is to identify local technology leaders to help transition to a more digitally responsible world.Julaya is still a strong competitor to Orange, banks, fintechs, telecom operators and other banks. How does the company plan to remain top of minds in the region? Lopoldie believes that focusing on providing the best user experience could be the key to success.Although it sounds cliché, we know that customers value reliable customer service and an easy online experience. For instance, a platform that is always up and running with minimal downtime. You can trust your customers even if you have a 90% success rate with transactions.
