Afrigather As soon as a service supplier to industrial banks in Nigeria, TeamApt has rebranded as Moniepoint. In taking the identify of its hottest product, it’s aiming to be a family identify and construct a pan-African enterprise.
For years within the Nigerian fintech house, specialists have talked about TeamApt as one of many main fintechs within the nation. Two of the corporate’s merchandise, Moniepoint and Monnify, have had spectacular ranges of success within the company banking and funds house, respectively. However final week, the Nigerian firm introduced that it will drop the TeamApt identify—a reputation that has been in use since 2015 however has but to realize family standing—and undertake that of its hottest product, Moniepoint.
Launched in 2019, the Moniepoint product first began as an company banking resolution and, by 2021, had processed over 120,000 lively retailers and served 18 million distinctive prospects. Per the corporate’s report, Moniepoint additionally processed over $4 billion in month-to-month transactions in 2021.
The next yr, 2022, the corporate processed an annual whole funds quantity exceeding $170 billion. These numbers put the corporate in the identical league as fintech giants, Flutterwave, OPay, and Interswitch.
In April 2022, the Moniepoint product advanced right into a enterprise financial institution after receiving a microfinance licence from the NDIC. This evolution allowed it to offer credit score, insurance coverage, multi-channel funds, and different options to companies. By the tip of 2022, it had disbursed working capital loans totalling $1.4 billion; and claims that its common default price is lower than 0.1%.
Regardless of the success of TeamApt’s merchandise, it doesn’t get pleasure from the identical stage of name consciousness within the Nigerian buyer scene as its opponents like Opay and Paystack. One principle is that as a result of TeamApt began as a B2B firm targeted on serving Nigerian banks, it didn’t join with the shoppers who ended up utilizing its expertise.
With merchandise like MoneyTor and AptPay, TeamApt made its identify working within the background. Via the aforementioned merchandise, TeamApt supplied monetary and cost options to industrial banks like ALAT, Zenith, and UBA. This historical past of offering backend providers to banks didn’t essentially demand the kind of model consciousness that will later be demanded by consumer-facing merchandise like Moniepoint.
It isn’t uncommon for a service supplier to not have model consciousness within the buyer scene. Fintech service suppliers like Appzone and Accelerex regardless of having a substantial affect throughout the continent in all probability share the identical stage of name salience as TeamApt. Nonetheless, these firms strictly present providers within the B2B sector and do not need consumer-facing merchandise, like TeamApt.
TeamApt’s merchandise, nonetheless, have a better stage of name recognition than the guardian firm. Moniepoint’s ubiquity—the corporate claims to course of greater than half of all POS transactions in Nigeria—and Monnify’s efficiency has skyrocketed their affect and recognition.
In line with a advertising and marketing skilled who spoke off the report, the corporate’s latest rebranding was motivated by the TeamApt model’s lukewarm reception with most of the people. He shared that as a result of TeamApt was the identify of the guardian firm, it will have taken folks some time to reconcile the truth that the Moniepoint model—which was synonymous with awards, recognitions, and a number of other constructive buyer evaluations—was below the umbrella of TeamApt.
In a 2019 analysis paper concerning the impact of rebranding on banking institutions, the writer, an economics professor, concluded that monetary organisations “more and more use company rebranding to boost model relevance and enhance operational effectivity”. She additionally added {that a} company identify ought to be simpler to recollect, establish, and check with.
Two sources near the scenario informed TechCabal that the transfer had been within the works for some time, including that it made sense since Moniepoint has change into a family identify. The corporate’s assertion additionally alludes to this, because it shared that the rebrand hoped to leverage the belief Moniepoint’s model had established and take away limitations between prospects and the model.
TeamApt’s rebranding additionally accounts for the stringent rules that govern the monetary sector. Like the vast majority of fintech firms in Nigeria, it was registered in Delaware and solely modified the identify of its holding firm to Moniepoint. This was finished to accommodate the 2 separate entities holding the Switching and Processing License—arguably probably the most precious CBN license in Nigeria—and the Moniepoint microfinance financial institution license.
A brand new daybreak
It’s inconceivable to debate TeamApt with out acknowledging the corporate’s ambitions to change into a unicorn. In June 2021, Tosin Eniolorunda, the corporate’s CEO, informed TechCabal: “We expect the company to reach unicorn-type valuations soon.” In November 2021, Bloomberg reported that the corporate was elevating $150 million at a valuation of $1 billion; in the long run, a $50 million funding got here at a barely decrease valuation.
The corporate may solely obtain its aspirations now, with Eniolorunda sharing that the corporate’s income was close to $200 million in 2022. A key piece to reaching the feat will come right down to storytelling. It should additionally come right down to positioning Moniepoint as one of the essential enterprise banks in Africa.
For many individuals, the TeamApt identify gave the impression to be a relic of the times when the corporate supplied providers to Nigerian banks. In that sense, this week’s identify change is correct on the cash.
With an East and North African growth within the works, the identify change could also be particularly helpful in successful the belief of latest prospects given its relative recognition. Moniepoint might be hoping that this rebrand goes swimmingly, very similar to Kudy’s rebrand to Nomba, and can undoubtedly double down on its storytelling because it seems to be to maneuver from “soonicorn” to unicorn.
