Mubasher: Pyypl, a Middle East and Africa (MEA) focused fintech, has announced the commercial rollout of its social and micro-investment platform that will support self-employed entrepreneurs in addition to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa.

The company seeks to offer financial services to 800 million financially underserved smartphone users in MEA through internationally accepted virtual and physical prepaid cards as well as instant domestic and international user-to-user transfers besides remittances to 42 currency destinations, according to a press release.

Through an initial partnership with Kenya’s Tuk Tuk Operators Network (TTON), the platform aims to endorse the digitalisation of Tuk Tuk operators across 47 counties through Pyypl’s virtual debit cards, which will have a direct positive impact on TTON’s growth.

Pyypl, which is pronounced as people, witnessed a threefold increase in its revenues during the four-month period from October 2022 to January 2023, inclusive, and were eight times higher than 2021.

The fintech startup’s App 2.0 launched in eight different languages, while its prepaid card was transacted at 30,000 different merchants in 150 countries and 100 different currencies.

CEO of Pyypl, Antti Arponen, said: “We are proud to partner with the Tuk Tuk Operators Network to provide short-term, fair and transparent investment alongside Pyypl’s leading digital financial services to the benefit of its members across Africa.”

Arponen noted that the partnership “demonstrates the huge opportunity for Pyypl’s debentures platform as we build out partnerships across multiple African countries.”

Pyypl expected that organisations like the World Bank and International Finance Corporation would be part of the investors in the near future.

In 2022, Pyypl closed its target series B raise of $20 million from international and existing investors.