Moniepoint

Moniepoint earns interchange and transaction fees on the $17 billion in monthly payment volume it processes. It also captures interest income and fees from the working-capital loans it extends to merchants through its in-house microfinance bank. The business-management tools and expense-card programs contribute software-style recurring subscription and interchange revenue. Because Moniepoint controls its own banking license, it retains a larger share of unit economics than fintechs that rely on sponsor banks.

Moniepoint operates a microfinance bank charter in Nigeria through Moniepoint MFB, which allows it to accept deposits, issue loans, and settle payment transactions on its own balance sheet. The firm also holds a Payment Service Provider license from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Holding both a banking and a payments license in-house reduces reliance on third-party infrastructure and gives the firm bespoke control over merchant settlement timing and lending criteria.

The terminal network is the core distribution asset. Moniepoint activates a new POS device every 30 seconds, building a physical point-of-sale footprint that digital-only rivals struggle to match in Nigeria's cash-heavy economy. Maintaining and refreshing this hardware fleet carries operational expense, but the terminals also serve as a captive merchant-acquisition channel for the higher-margin banking and credit products. The trade-off appears favorable given the cross-sell rates implied by 20 million accounts.

Google participated as an investor in Moniepoint's $110 million equity round in late 2024 (per Reuters, October 2024). The investment likely includes commercial agreements around cloud infrastructure, given Moniepoint's engineering-heavy payments stack and Google's Africa cloud investments. Other backers have not been disclosed by name, though the round was large enough to attract multiple institutional growth-stage investors and pushed the valuation into unicorn territory.

Moniepoint uses the transaction data flowing through its own POS terminals and business accounts as the primary underwriting input. Because the firm sees daily cashflow and settlement history for millions of merchants, it can build credit scores off observed behavior rather than formal financial statements. This lets Moniepoint extend working-capital loans to shopkeepers and market traders who have no traditional banking relationship — a segment formal banks have largely avoided.