Once a service supplier to industrial banks in Nigeria, TeamApt has rebranded as Moniepoint. In taking the name of its hottest product, it’s aiming to be a family name and construct a pan-African enterprise.
For years within the Nigerian fintech area, consultants 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 area, respectively. But final week, the Nigerian firm introduced that it could drop the TeamApt name—a name 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 answer and, by 2021, had processed over 120,000 lively retailers and served 18 million distinctive clients. Per the corporate’s report, Moniepoint additionally processed over $4 billion in month-to-month transactions in 2021.
The following yr, 2022, the corporate processed an annual whole funds quantity exceeding $170 billion. Those 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 supply credit score, insurance coverage, multi-channel funds, and different options to companies. By the top of 2022, it had disbursed working capital loans totalling $1.4 billion; and claims that its common default price is lower than 0.1%.
Despite the success of TeamApt’s merchandise, it doesn’t take pleasure in the identical stage of name consciousness within the Nigerian buyer scene as its opponents like Opay and Paystack. One idea is that as a result of TeamApt began as a B2B firm targeted on serving Nigerian banks, it didn’t join with the purchasers who ended up utilizing its expertise.
With merchandise like MoneyTor and AptPay, TeamApt made its name working within the background. Through the aforementioned merchandise, TeamApt offered monetary and cost options to industrial banks like ALAT, Zenith, and UBA. This historical past of offering backend companies to banks didn’t essentially demand the kind of model consciousness that may later be demanded by consumer-facing merchandise like Moniepoint.
It is just not 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 impression throughout the continent in all probability share the identical stage of name salience as TeamApt. However, these corporations strictly present companies within the B2B sector and don’t have consumer-facing merchandise, like TeamApt.
TeamApt’s merchandise, nevertheless, 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.
According to a advertising and marketing skilled who spoke off the file, the corporate’s latest rebranding was motivated by the TeamApt model’s lukewarm reception with most people. He shared that as a result of TeamApt was the name of the guardian firm, it could have taken folks some time to reconcile the truth that the Moniepoint model—which was synonymous with awards, recognitions, and several other optimistic buyer critiques—was beneath the umbrella of TeamApt.
In a 2019 analysis paper concerning the impression of rebranding on banking establishments, the creator, an economics professor, concluded that monetary organisations “increasingly use corporate rebranding to enhance brand relevance and improve operational efficiency”. She additionally added {that a} company name must be simpler to recollect, establish, and confer with.
Two sources near the scenario advised TechCabal that the transfer had been within the works for some time, including that it made sense since Moniepoint has change into a family name. The firm’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 obstacles between clients and the model.
TeamApt’s rebranding additionally accounts for the stringent laws that govern the monetary sector. Like nearly all of fintech corporations in Nigeria, it was registered in Delaware and solely modified the name of its holding firm to Moniepoint. This was achieved to accommodate the 2 separate entities holding the Switching and Processing License—arguably probably the most invaluable CBN license in Nigeria—and the Moniepoint microfinance financial institution license.
A new daybreak
It’s unattainable to debate TeamApt with out acknowledging the corporate’s ambitions to change into a unicorn. In June 2021, Tosin Eniolorunda, the corporate’s CEO, advised 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 firm would possibly solely obtain its aspirations now, with Eniolorunda sharing that the corporate’s income was near $200 million in 2022. A key piece to reaching the feat will come all the way down to storytelling. It can even come all the way down to positioning Moniepoint as one of the crucial vital enterprise banks in Africa.
For many individuals, the TeamApt name gave the impression to be a relic of the times when the corporate offered companies to Nigerian banks. In that sense, this week’s name change is true on the cash.
With an East and North African enlargement within the works, the name change could also be particularly helpful in profitable the belief of new clients given its relative reputation. Moniepoint can be hoping that this rebrand goes swimmingly, very like Kudy’s rebrand to Nomba, and can undoubtedly double down on its storytelling because it seems to be to maneuver from “soonicorn” to unicorn.
…. to be continued
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