African expats in the United States now have an additional option when remitting money back home after Africa focused Fintech firm Chipper Cash launched a remittance service to eight regional markets.

US remittance functionality comes on the back of the company’s recent launch of money transfer service in South Africa.

Chipper Cash’s mobile application now enables “instant peer-to-peer (P2P) payments from the United States to 8 countries in Africa as well as to the United Kingdom,” the company said.

The eight African countries include Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda.

With its launch of the US service, Chipper Cash has also been integrated into Twitter Tips “to move money to support African creators” and thought leaders.

Chipper Cash CEO Ham Serunjogi said: “With Chipper, we can collectively empower and enable easy payments that drive trade, commerce, and culture on iOS, Android, and the Twitter Tips.”

Founded in 2018, Chipper Cash has evolved into a US$1-bllion tech start-up in just three years, after attracting massive venture financing from international funders, including a US$100-million Series C fund raising in June this year.

Chipper Cash “reaches over 4 million users globally, with 30,000 daily new users, and up to 100,000 transactions processed per day,” it says.

International remittances are integral for African economies where they help families, relatives and friends of expats meet costs.

However, the cost of sending money to African countries has remained high, providing an opportunity for Fintech companies offering zero to low remittance fees to scale operations and to expand to more source markets.

Mobile money platforms have also been blossoming into the remittance field, inking partnerships with Fintech companies to enable recipients to get instant cash transfers straight into their wallets.