Arabnet Arabnet

A15, a tech investment fund based in the Cayman Islands, announced today that it has successfully sold 76% stake in its UAE-based fintech company TPAY Mobile to Helios Investment Partners, a private investment firm.

TPAY is a Direct Carrier Billing provider that acquired its competitor DCBEgypt, the second largest Direct Carrier Billing service provider in Egypt, for an undisclosed amount last year. TPAY commands the largest market share at 80% in the DCB space across 16 countries, with a total reach of 673 million users. The company processed 622 million successful transactions since its launch. Through its partnerships with 33 leading mobile operators, the number of successful transactions processed by TPAY grew at a CAGR of 1,081% since its launch.

Following this transaction, A15 became the first fund in the Middle East and Africa which created a Dragon from one of its investments, TPAY. In this case, TPAY returned a multiple of the value of the entire A15 fund to its investors - a rare liquidity event in the global tech investment space and a first of its kind in the MENA region.

This MENA’s First Dragon exit is the second major exit for A15 in three years after the sale of Otlob, a regional online food delivery businesses, to Rocket Internet.

Karim Beshara, Chairman of A15, commented, “I would like to congratulate CEO Sahar Salama and her team for this significant milestone for the startup ecosystem as well as for TPAY, and to welcome our new partners, Helios. We strongly believe that with such a capable and experienced partner like Helios, TPAY is well-positioned to unlock its utmost potential. I am looking forward to continuing our work with Sahar and her exceptional team as well as with Helios to take TPAY to the next level of growth globally.”

Fadi Antaki, CEO of A15, added, “Our fund teams provide strategic support and capacity, building best practices across key functions such as legal, finance, operations, HR and growth. A15’s ecosystem of regional offices and networks serve as a launchpad for our portfolio companies, as in the case of TPAY. I am confident that TPAY is well placed to lead the future growth in the DCB sector within the mobile payment industry in the Middle East and Africa.”

Babatunde Soyoye, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners, said, “A15 and TPAY management have built an outstanding mobile payments platform that is profitable and still has a lot of room for growth in Africa and beyond given its applicability to a wide range of payment types and ease of use.  

According to Payfort and Wamda, with an estimated 86% of adults who do not have a bank account in the MENA region, mobile payments and DCB become key to buying digital and physical goods online. MENA is forecast to see the second fastest growth in smartphone adoption of any region over the next few years bringing smartphone adoption to 65% by 2020 as per the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) report.

Sahar Salama, Co-Founder and CEO of TPAY, stated, “I am excited to be part of this next chapter of TPAY’s growth. The Helios team brings new energy from a vibrant and experienced team that will drive real value to the business. This partnership will expedite TPAY’s strategic growth plans and we are on track to double our year-on-year revenue in 2019. My team and I are very proud of the business that we have built, and we look forward to taking it to even greater heights with our new partners, and to continue to set new benchmarks for the sector in the region.”

Following the acquisition by Helios Investment Partners, A15 and the current executive team will continue to lead the implementation of TPAY’s growth strategy, with guidance from the new owners, and both will remain invested in a total of 24% of the company.

TPAY plans to leverage this new partnership with Helios to expand into new markets with a focus on Africa and Asia, as well as expanding its footprint into new sectors to use DCB and introducing new partners to the market.