Nigerian mobile payments firm Paga acquires software development company Apposit

Lagos-based mobile payments firm Paga has acquired US-based software development firm Apposit.

Although it is based in the US, Apposit primarily operates from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

It’s not immediately clear how much Paga acquired Apposit for. Ventureburn yesterday sought comment from the firm but had not received a comment at the time of publication.

The acquisition also sees Paga introduce its services in Ethiopia.

Apposit was founded in 2007 by Adam Abate, Simon Solomon and Eric Chijioke

Paga was founded in 2009 by CEO Tayo Oviosu, while Apposit was established in 2007 by CEO Adam Abate, Simon Solomon and Eric Chijioke (pictured above, left to right with Gideon Abate).

Paga said in a statement yesterday that Apposit has since 2009 had an engineering dedicated to the startup since 2009.

Oviosu said that by acquiring Apposit, Paga gains a scalable world-class internal engineering team as well as a stronger position to grow its global payment business.

‘Instant go-to market strategy in Ethiopia’

The fintech startup explained in its statement that it had found that Ethiopia has similar cash and payment problems like those in Nigeria.

This, it added, has led to it introducing its services in the country.

“Acquiring Apposit provides Paga with an instant go-to-market strategy to launch the Paga service in Ethiopia under the vast experience and leadership of Abate who will now become the CEO of Paga Ethiopia,” the startup said.

The acquisition of the software development firm will also see Paga own Apposit’s in-house tech products — digital agricultural platform Terra and sales automation platform Tangio.

‘Acquisition very natural progression’

Abate, commenting in the same statement, said Apposit’s acquisition by Paga is a “very natural progression” in the close relationship the company has had with Paga over the last 10 years.

Apposit’s leadership team, Paga explained, will be absorbed into Paga’s leadership structure with Chijoke retaining his CTO role, Solomon becoming lead systems architect and Gideon Abate as head of product innovation.

The company’s 62 employees will also join Paga, bringing the fintech’s total staff compliment to over 530 people.

US tech publication reported in an article earlier today that Paga will launch its products in Mexico this year.

Featured image, left to right: Apposit co-founder and CEO Adam Abate, Simon Solomon, Eric Chijioke and Gideon Apposit (Paga via Medium)