pawaPay Passes 3 Billion Transactions, Scaling the Rails Behind African Betting

pawaPay, the payments-infrastructure company that connects merchants to Africa's mobile money networks, has processed more than 3 billion transactions. The milestone matters for gambling because betting operators are the volume that anchors the platform, and in much of Africa a bet is funded from a phone wallet rather than a card or bank account.

The growth has accelerated. pawaPay reached its third billion transactions in under nine months, faster than any previous billion, and daily volume has nearly doubled:

• More than 3 billion mobile-money transactions processed in total.
• Over 3 million transactions a day across 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Coverage of about 85% of Africa's mobile-money wallets through 42 mobile-money operators across 20-plus markets.
• 100% uptime since December 2024, spanning roughly a billion transactions without disruption.

A single pipe to a fragmented market

pawaPay's model is to sit behind the scenes rather than compete for consumers. Africa's mobile-money market is split across dozens of operators and networks, from M-Pesa to MTN MoMo, and an operator wanting to take deposits across several countries would otherwise integrate with each one separately. pawaPay aggregates them into one API, which is why high-frequency, small-ticket businesses lean on it. Betting operators are the clearest example and the company's largest volume source, but the same rails carry ride-hailing firms Yango and Bolt, broadcasters DStv and Canal+, the cash-transfer charity GiveDirectly, and trading platform Deriv, which went live across eight African markets in 2025.

Founded in 2020, pawaPay raised a $9 million seed round in 2021 led by MSA Capital and 88mph, with Vunani Capital, Kepple Ventures and Zagadat Capital also taking part, and has scaled the network since without a large follow-on raise.

Why it matters for operators and affiliates

The numbers describe the practical cashier for anyone targeting African gambling traffic. Card penetration is low and bank transfers are slow, so deposits and withdrawals move through mobile money, the same channel that carries roughly 70% of bets in markets like Ghana. For operators and the affiliates sending them players, the choice of payment partner is not a back-office detail. It determines which countries an operator can realistically accept deposits from, how fast withdrawals clear, and how many would-be depositors abandon at the cashier. An aggregator processing 3 million transactions a day across 19 countries is, in effect, part of the acquisition funnel for the continent's fast-growing betting market.