Mobile money transfer service Zoona is not perturbed about talk of a possible 'super racket' emerging in Africa's remittance market, nor the level of competition that generally exists within Africa's growing mobile money services space. The company, which launched in Zambia in 2009, is confident of its strategy to place the entrepreneur (agent) at the centre of its service ecosystem and focus on collaboration rather than competition.

Africa's mobile money market features several operators and relevant services & platforms, including M-Pesa, M-Shwari, SimbaPay, Equitel and EcoCash, to name a few. It is a market that continues to attract businesses within the financial, telecommunications, ICT and other sectors.

According to a MarketsandMarkets research report Africa's mobile money market is forecast to grow to US$14.26 billion by 2020 – driven by the advent of services to promote financial inclusion and address the requirements of the unbanked population.

In May this year global money transfer service WorldRemit referred to what at that stage was a potential merger between rival service providers MoneyGram and Western Union, and voiced concern over the possibility of a 'duopoloy' in the market and the risk of overcharging within the industry in some regions.

At the time Alix Murphy, senior mobile analyst at WorldRemit said, "The reports about a possible merger between Western Union and MoneyGram raised major concerns about competition in the money transfer industry. While Western Union have called the reports about a possible acquisition of MoneyGram "not accurate", we have urged regulators to take a strong stance against any such undertaking."

Lelemba Phiri, Zoona's group head of talent and managing director of Zambia and Malawi , says the company has a different view of competition. "What others would perceive to be competitors, we often see as potential collaborators. In cases where we are all working towards the same goal of increasing financial inclusion through technology - we see potential in working together. Our partnership with Airtel Money in Zambia, is one such example."

Zoona was started by two brothers from Zambia – Brad and Brett Magrath. It has presence in South Africa, Zambia and Malawi, with focus now on Ghana and Mozambique.

Support, corporate and financial services are run from the company's headquarters in Cape Town, while sales, agent support and business operations are run in-country in Malawi and Zambia.

The necessary capital

Zambia represents the company's stronghold with close to 1,000 operating outlets and an outlet growth rate of between 7-15% a month. "We have been operating in Malawi for ten months (since October 2014) – and have grown our footprint to close to 250 outlets," says Phiri.

Zoona provides a platform that enables people to send and receive through a network of emerging entrepreneurs or agents. These agents also provide other financial services such as bill payments, which are executed through a mobi site or USSD and can be accessed via any mobile phone.

"Zoon is differentiated from the competition by the fact that it is not dependent on a mobile wallet – which means that neither senders nor receivers need to mobile wallet to access our service.

Our service is also network-agnostic which means that it is not locked to a single mobile network operator and can be accessed from all networks operational in the market," Phiri adds.

Despite its startup venture status, the company's website states that it offers working capital financing, business management tools and entrepreneurial support to other businesses.

This is because it has the necessary financial backing says Phiri. "We are a startup venture – but unlike most we are profitable and have been so since 2013. We have also raised Series A investment of $4 million in 2012 and debt financing of $2 million in 2015."

From an institutional investment point of view, Zoona claims to be the first technology company from Zambia to raise international equity. In 2012, the company raised $4 million dollars in international Series A equity, including financing from the Omidyar Network (investment fund started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar), Accion Frontier Investments Group and the Sarona Investment Fund

Zoona's goal is to secure presence in ten markets in the next five years.