After Jumia Day 2, I declare for Andela and Interswitch to abandon any alternative plan that is not New York (NYSE or NASDAQ) listing. Forget London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and hit the land of Yankees. Nonetheless, I remain convinced that Alibaba Group through Ant Financial will buy Interswitch in order to have presence in Africa since it has picked properties in other global regions as it pursues payment system unification.
I have been tracking acquisitions by Ant Financial, an affiliate company of Alibaba Group. The Chinese company which is already bigger than Goldman Sachs is on spending spree, buying the world. London-based FT reported , few weeks ago, that it was in talks to buy WorldFirst, the UK-based international payments group, for about $700 million. The U.S. government had blocked its love-songs to MoneyGram, rejecting the proposed acquisition.
Did you see that 12,857,332 volume on Jumia Day 2? That is a solid whet of appetite from investors.
Andela identifies and develops software developers. The company launched operations in Nigeria in 2014, to help global companies overcome the severe shortage of skilled software developers and has offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United States. It has raised millions of dollars as it pursues its mission – a really great one in this age where “software is eating” the world!
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Interswitch is an Africa-focused integrated digital payments and commerce company that facilitates the electronic circulation of money as well as the exchange of value between individuals and organisations on a timely and consistent basis. The company started operations in 2002 as a transaction switching and electronic payments processing company that builds and manages payment infrastructure as well as deliver innovative payment products and transactional services throughout the African continent.
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