AZA Finance

AZA Finance is an African financial company specializing in web-based payments and remittances into and out of Africa. It has regional offices in Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar, Madrid, and London, as well as South Africa.

History
In 2013, AZA Finance was initially established as BitPesa by Elizabeth Rossiello and Charlene Chen in Nairobi, Kenya. Amy Ludlum joined a few months later and became a co-founder and CFO. Min-si Wang was one of the first employees and later also became an executive. Early investors included Joseph Mucheru, then the Head of Google Kenya and later the Cabinet Secretary for Information and Communications in Kenya, Digital Currency Group, Blockchain Capital, and Pantera.

AZA Finance is notable for being the first money transfer operator to connect African currencies and mobile money to digital currency technology. The company has since grown into a global payments institution, currently holding payment licenses across multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Uganda, and Nigeria. The company was renamed in 2019 as AZA Finance.

AZA Finance's first acquisition was of Transferzero in Spain in 2018, which was founded by Luis Cambronero. AZA Finance's second acquisition was of Exchange4Free in 2021, which at the time made it the largest non-bank currency broker in Africa.

Operations
The company now operates in over 17 African countries, with physical offices in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Major non-African currencies supported by AZA Finance include AED, EUR, GBP, JPY, and USD, while African currencies include GHS, KES, MAD, UGX, XAF, NGN, ZAR, ZMW, and XOF.