Millicom and Kalixa partner in Latin America-Africa payments venture

A joint venture by Millicom and Kalixa will develop a payments service provider in Africa and Latin America, offering payment acceptance services for businesses and consumers.

The partnership will commence in Colombia and Brazil later this year, eventually expanding to cover the end-to-end payment ecosystem across Africa and Latin America.

Columbia and Brazil are the natural starting point for any payments venture in Latin America. Brazil is its largest market with around 60% of its ecommerce by volume and 80% of the continent’s top 500 e-merchants present there. In Colombia, Millicom’s largest market in the area, ecommerce is growing significantly at over 60% annually with 50% of internet users enjoying online shopping.

The joint venture will offer payment acceptance services for both businesses and consumers, including payment gateway and point of sale solutions for merchants as well as 1-click payment and eWallet provision for online customers.

“Working with Kalixa will enable us to offer a complete digital payments service in markets where ecommerce is growing rapidly and where we already have a strong presence,” said Millicom’s CEO and President, Hans-Holger Albrecht. “It is a great combination of our respective expertise.”

“As developing markets, Latin America & Africa represent a combined $1.78 trillion opportunity for the payments industry,” said Ed Chandler, CEO of Kalixa. “Our partnership with Millicom is the first step in making payments easier for merchants and consumers in these regions by offering a connected service with the full spectrum of payment services being offered under one roof. As we have already seen in Europe, by removing unnecessary links in the chain we can service customers more efficiently. This allows us to pass the value back to help merchants capitalise on the digital explosion happening in this region.”

Source: CCgroup PR

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