Economy
KPay Secures Record USD55 Million, Marking 2024’s Largest Series A Fundraise Globally in the Payments Sector
KPay strengthens its position as the leading regional platform for merchants to simplify financial management and streamline business operations. The investment by Apis Growth Markets Fund III and Apis Global Growth Fund III will accelerate KPay’s trajectory to support one million merchants across Asia in the next five years
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 December 2024 – KPay Group (KPay), a one-stop financial management and business operations platform, today announced the successful completion of its first institutional funding round, raising a record USD 55 million, the largest Series A globally in the payments sector in 2024[1].
This landmark investment was led by Apis Growth Markets Fund III and Apis Global Growth Fund III (both of which Apis Partners LLP serves as the portfolio manager for), validating KPay’s strategic vision, market leadership and ambitious growth trajectory. UK-based Apis Partners is an ESG and Impact-native global private equity asset manager which manages or advises on total assets under management of USD 2.3 billion. This investment will not only accelerate KPay’s existing trajectory but also provide the basis for its aggressive expansion plans across Emerging Asia.
With fintech funding in Asia Pacific hitting a six-year low[2] in H1 2024, KPay’s record-breaking Series A stands out as a testament to the company’s execution excellence and opportunity set ahead. The successful funding also demonstrates investors’ appetite to back companies – like KPay – which have a proven playbook to drive expansion across Asia and can do so in a capital efficient manner. Notably, up until this Series A round, the company had yet to raise venture capital funding to deliver growth.
The investment from Apis Partners includes a commitment by KPay to expand its presence across key Asian economies, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and more. KPay will leverage the capital to drive both organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions. This partnership aligns closely with the shared vision of Apis and KPay to drive meaningful change, recognizing the critical role of SMEs, which account for 55.8%[3] of total employment in Asia, and in turn acknowledges that supporting SME growth fosters broader economic development and strengthens regional economies.
Founded just over three years ago, KPay has achieved a remarkable 166% revenue CAGR during this period, operating across Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. The company has built a one-stop solution to facilitate the financial, operational and digital transformation for merchants of all sizes, and is already serving more than 45,000 merchants in the region. With its open-architecture ecosystem, KPay currently partners with over 150 SaaS providers, banking institutions, and financial services firms and plans to double its partnerships to support even more businesses across Asia in their financial and digital transformation journey.
Davis Chan, Co-founder and CEO of KPay, says, “I am incredibly proud of this financial milestone our team has achieved. We are excited to use this funding to not only expand our existing markets’ SME merchant base, but also broaden our reach into new merchant industry categories, merchants of all sizes, and merchants operating in other underserved markets across Asia. This will bring us closer to our ambitious goal of supporting one million merchants over the next five years”
Christopher Yu, President and CFO of KPay, adds, “Securing this funding gives us financial strength and flexibility to enhance our product innovation, go-to-market speed, customer experience, and operational excellence. All of this is with our merchants in mind, in making it even simpler, smarter, and more cost-effective for them when using KPay’s services. To do this, we need to continue to attract the best partners and global talent to join us, who share the same ambition to work alongside us to achieve the company’s vision and mission.”
Matteo Stefanel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Apis Partners, comments: “We are thrilled to lead this investment in KPay, a unique company demonstrating remarkable growth under the leadership of seasoned third-time founders and an exemplary management team. As one of the most active global fintech investors in growth-stage companies, Apis is eager to bring our domain expertise to support this exciting phase of KPay’s journey. With this combination of both financial strength and execution excellence, we look forward to a long-term partnership with KPay, to support their regional expansion, and spearheading next-gen financial management solutions in Asia’s diverse payments and software sector.”
Udayan Goyal, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Apis Partners, adds: “As a financial services-focused investor, we recognise the unique value KPay brings to the market through its commitment to empowering merchants with accessible, impactful financial tools. This investment aligns perfectly with our ESG and Impact mandate to foster sustainable and inclusive growth within the financial sector, promoting the democratisation of finance, embedded finance and the deepening of the digital economy. We look forward to supporting KPay as it scales, helping the company deliver meaningful financial solutions across Asia.”
Hashtag: #KPay #KConnect #KFund #SME #funding #fundraising #privateequity #payin #payout #finance #apispartners
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About KPay Group
KPay Group (“KPay”) is a leading fintech company dedicated to empowering businesses of all sizes with simple, smart, seamless and secure technology solutions. Serving over 45,000 merchants across Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan, KPay is building a one-stop platform to support merchants in financial management, business operations and digital transformation across Asia, unlocking new growth potential for businesses. For the latest updates, follow us on 
LinkedIn or visit our website at 
www.kpay-group.com.
About Apis Partners
The Apis Group (“Apis”) is an ESGI-native private equity and venture capital asset manager that supports growth-stage financial services and technology businesses globally by providing them with catalytic growth equity capital. Collectively Apis, through its team of around 40 professionals with deep industry expertise, manages or advises on total AUM of c.US$2.3 billion.
Headquartered in London, Apis has representation in seven countries globally. Apis is highly conscious of the impact that the provision of growth capital for financial services and technology businesses in global markets can achieve, and as such, financial inclusion and financial wellness are core tenets of Apis’ impact investment approach. www.apis.pe
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, said the removal of petrol subsidy saved Nigeria N15.8 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025.
Mr Oyedele disclosed this on Wednesday at a press conference, where he provided a breakdown of the financial impact of the federal government’s economic reforms under President Bola Tinubu, the same day that the campaign for the 2027 presidential elections commenced.
He said the subsidy savings were reflected in the resources available to the federation, although they did not appear as a separate credit to the federation account under the description “subsidy savings”.
“Between June 2023 and December 2025, subsidy savings mobilised the sum of N15.8 trillion in resources for the federation.
“Many people will say, where is the subsidy savings? As a matter of fact, there wasn’t any alert to the Federation Account with the description ‘subsidy savings’,” Mr Oyedele said.
According to the minister, the federal government received N5.4 trillion of the N15.8 trillion, while N10.4 trillion was shared among state and local governments through the Federation Account.
Mr Oyedele said the government’s overall financial position during the period also reflected increased independent revenue and borrowing to fund its expenditure.
He said the federal government generated N3.1 trillion in incremental independent revenue, largely from remittances by government-owned entities and increased surpluses from government agencies.
The government also borrowed an additional N11.9 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025.
“People will say, you said you have exceeded your revenue, why are you still borrowing?” Mr Oyedele said, “The additional borrowing that the federal government took for that period of time, June 2023 to December 2025, amounted to N11.9 trillion.”
According to him, the combination of incremental independent revenue and additional borrowing brought the Federal Government’s incremental resources during the period to N20.4 trillion.
However, he said total incremental expenditure stood at N30.64 trillion.
Mr Oyedele said the figures demonstrated the fiscal implications of the reforms, which were introduced to address long-standing economic distortions and reduce pressure on government finances.
“The administration of President Bola Tinubu has embarked on major reforms to address age-long economic challenges,” he said.
He identified the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market as key measures undertaken by the administration.
“The removal of fuel subsidy, which was quietly bankrupting the country, and the unification of an exchange rate system that had become a source of distortion and corruption rather than stability.
“Those decisions came at a cost, and we are not here to implement otherwise. What does reform cost?” Mr Oyedele questioned.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange weakened further by 1.75 per cent on Tuesday, August 18, triggered by losses recorded by the duo of Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and Food Concepts Plc.
CSCS Plc, the Nigerian securities depository company, lost N8.48 to settle at N90.02 per share compared with the previous value of N98.50 per share, while Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of fast food franchise, Chicken Republic, dropped 15 Kobo to end at N2.35 per unit versus N2.50 per unit.
Consequently, the NASD Security Index (NSI) further declined by 77.26 points to 4,348.76 points from Monday’s 4,426.02 points, while the market capitalisation dipped by N46.37 billion to N2.610 trillion from N2.656 trillion.
During the session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors slumped by 82.6 per cent to 113,728 units from the previous session’s 652,081 units, and the value of securities slid by 12.4 per cent to N9.4 million from the preceding day’s N10.7 million, while the number of deals increased by 47.6 per cent to 31 deals from 21 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units traded for N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 79.7 million units transacted for N5.8 billion.
GNI Plc was also the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, trailed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units exchanged for N415.7 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Nigerian Naira further appreciated against the US Dollar by N6.22 or 0.46 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, August 18, to N1,343.32/$1 from the previous rate of N1,349.54/$1.
This occurred amid steady growth in Nigeria’s external reserves, rising to $52.32 billion as of August 17, 2026, giving the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) enough arsenal to defend the local currency when the need arises in the FX market.
Also, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N10.85 to close at N1,819.26/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,830.11/£1, and gained N8.55 on the Euro to sell at N1,556.24/€1 versus Monday’s N1,564.79/€1.
In the same vein, the Naira appreciated against the Dollar in the black market during the trading session by N5 to quote at N1,390/$1, in contrast to the N1,395/$1 it was traded a day earlier, and strengthened at the GTBank forex desk by N7 to N1,357/$1 from N1,364/$1.
NAFEM interbank FX turnover declined as financial institutions’ activities moderated. Interbank FX turnover dropped by 16.6 per cent to $364.709 million from $437.529 million, with the number of deals down by 39.3 per cent to 108 deals from 178 deals.
As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $64,120.36, as most other major cryptocurrencies closed in the green amid a global selloff in chip stocks.
An Asian semiconductor gauge dropped more than 3 per cent, following a 5 per cent slide in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on Tuesday, its worst session since late July, while investors await US Federal Reserve minutes and are widely expecting no rate change in September.
Solana (SOL) gained 1.4 per cent to sell at $76.66, Cardano (ADA) added 0.9 per cent to trade at $0.1748, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.6 per cent to $1,905.54, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 0.4 per cent to sell at $0.9986, TRON (TRX) improved by 0.3 per cent to $0.3327, and Dogecoin (DOGE) soared by 0.2 per cent to $0.0698.
However, Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 0.4 per cent to $600.88, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.
