One of Africa’s leading e-commerce platforms, Jumia Technologies AG is looking to catalyze its expansion into Egypt’s cashless transactions space by offering its digital payments services to Egyptian firms. The New York-listed firm has acquired a new payments license and is cooperating with National Bank of Egypt to expand its services to other online retail platforms.

Following Nigeria, Egypt is Jumia’s largest market where almost two thirds of its 100 million people are unbanked. Egypt has been injecting more investment into fintech, encouraging more cashless payments and revving up the e-commerce market. 

Founded in 2012 in Lagos by French nationals Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodar, Jumia has since taken the continent by storm, operating in 11 African countries, capitalizing on the rapid spread of fast and affordable internet.

Jumia is now entering a phase characterised by scaling its business units and investing in developing technology and expanding staff size. Over the next couple months, the company will be in its pilot phase, on-boarding merchants before they are ready to scale up.