Bitmama Acquires PayDay in Remittance Expansion Drive

By Adedapo Adesanya

Bitmama Incorporated, a crypto exchange company, has confirmed the acquisition of Payday, a virtual card service provider.

According to reports, the chief executive of Bitmama, Mrs Ruth Iselema, has offered PayDay investors $1 million worth of equity in the crypto company at a $30 million valuation.

The news comes barely nine months after Payday announced its $3 million seed round and three months after its exploration of sale options was confirmed.

Facilitated through Bitmama’s cross-border payments product, Changera, the acquisition marks a pivotal shift from earlier speculations, including a potential acquisition by lead investor, Moniepoint.

Changera is set to consolidate its blockchain payment platform by acquiring 100 per cent of Payday’s customer base.

This development means that Bitmama will not start Changera, its relatively new remittance service, from scratch as it will now be based on the foundation laid by PayDay, which was founded by Mr Favour Ori a year ago.

Also, the acquirer will not need to create a new software stack or spend on acquiring new users as it will be looking to tap into PayDay’s 300,000 user base.

Payday’s brand will continue to operate but it will now fall under the broader umbrella of Changera, supported by its stablecoin infrastructure. This integration is expected to overcome the liabilities and challenges Payday faced due to its dependence on third-party integrations, thereby potentially improving both customer experience and service reliability.

Speaking on this, Mrs Iselema said, “Favour reached out to me because we’re building products beyond crypto; one of those products is Changera, and it made sense to me,” according to TechCabal, adding that Bitmama which started as a crypto exchange will now focus on global services, including remittance.

On his part, Mr Ori, the PayDay CEO said, “The deal is a work in progress,” noting that “If the deal goes through, the result will be a strong team with much more efficiency.”

Business Post had reported that PayDay was mulling a sale following a crisis that saw its Chief Operating Officer exit and MoniePoint, which led its last funding round, pull out of its acquisition despite its lead role in the $3 million raise earlier in the year.