“We started engaging with Tencent in March and they understand the scale and opportunity there would be for a company like ours,” Pays said. Ozow plans to use the funds to hunt for acquisitions as well as start services in Namibia, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, he said.

The Cape Town-based company’s digital-payment gateway — that connects shoppers directly to their bank accounts — has mirrored the growth in e-commerce in a nation where just 20% of bank-account holders have credit cards. Tencent’s investment gives it a stake in a startup that says it controls 70% of all instant, third-party electronic payments done in the nation.

Ozow is adding 140,000 users and processing $100 million in transactions every month, said Pays. The company has six million users.