Chipper Cash company profile: valuation, funding & revenue

This Chipper Cash company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Chipper Cash works in fintech, with a focus on cross-border payments and digital wallets for Africa. It was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. Its latest valuation on record is About US$2 billion (2021 peak) (November 2021). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.

Revenue

Funding history

Chipper Cash timeline

Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.

• 2018 — Chipper Cash is founded in San Francisco by Ham Serunjogi (CEO) and Maijid Moujaled.
• 2022 — SAFE: US$35M, valuing the company at About US$1.25B (reported). Investors: FTX.
• Nov 2021 — Series C extension: US$150M, valuing the company at About US$2B. Investors: FTX (lead).
• 2022 — Markdown: Valuation reported to have been cut to about US$1.25 billion through a US$35 million SAFE from FTX, before FTX's collapse.

Investors

Overview

Chipper Cash is a mobile payments app focused on Africa. Users can send money to friends and family across borders within Africa and from the US and UK to African countries, often with no fees on peer-to-peer transfers, along with buying airtime and data, paying bills, using virtual cards and, in some markets, investing in US stocks and crypto. Businesses use its network for payouts and collections. At its peak in 2021, Chipper Cash was one of Africa's most valuable startups, but its trajectory was disrupted by the collapse of FTX, the crypto exchange that led its last major funding round.

Ham Serunjogi, the CEO, and Maijid Moujaled founded Chipper Cash in 2018. Serunjogi grew up in Uganda and Moujaled in Ghana; they met as students at Grinnell College in Iowa and later worked at Facebook and Flipboard respectively. Frustrated by how expensive and slow it was to send money between African countries, they built an app to make cross-border transfers as easy as sending a text message. The company is incorporated and headquartered in San Francisco, with operations in several African countries.

Products

• Peer-to-peer transfers: sending money between users in supported countries, including cross-border transfers.
• Remittances: sending money from the US and UK to African countries.
• Bill payments, airtime and data: everyday payments within the app.
• Virtual cards: US dollar cards for online purchases.
• Investing: access to US stocks and crypto in some markets.
• Chipper Network: payment infrastructure for businesses that need payouts and collections across Africa.

Funding and the FTX effect

Chipper Cash grew rapidly during 2021's venture boom. It raised from investors including Ribbit Capital, SVB Capital, Deciens Capital, Tribe Capital and Bezos Expeditions, and in November 2021 FTX led a US$150 million extension of its Series C, valuing Chipper at more than US$2 billion. In 2022, documents reported by the Financial Times and TechCrunch showed that a US$35 million SAFE investment from FTX had effectively reset its valuation to about US$1.25 billion, to take full effect at a later priced round. FTX then collapsed in November 2022, removing a major investor. In 2023, reports said Chipper was exploring a sale. We show the 2021 figure in the fact tiles, clearly labelled as a peak, and list the markdown separately.

Business model

Many peer-to-peer transfers on Chipper are free to attract users. The company earns money from foreign exchange spreads on cross-border transfers, fees on remittances, card interchange, bill payment commissions, investment and crypto trading fees, and business payment services through Chipper Network. Chipper has cut costs and refocused on its most profitable markets and products. It doesn't publish revenue, so we show it as not disclosed.

Competition

Chipper Cash competes with mobile money services such as M-Pesa and MTN MoMo, fintechs such as Flutterwave, Moniepoint and LemFi, remittance companies such as Remitly, WorldRemit, Wise and Western Union, and local banks. Competition in African payments is intense, with many players offering free or very cheap transfers.

Chipper Cash at a glance

Chipper Cash is a cross-border payments app for Africa founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi of Uganda and Maijid Moujaled of Ghana, headquartered in San Francisco. It offers transfers, remittances, bill payments and cards. It was valued at about US$2 billion in a November 2021 round led by FTX, and later reported to have been marked down to about US$1.25 billion before FTX collapsed.

Timeline

• 2018: founded; launches in Ghana and Uganda.
• 2019–2020: expands to Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and other markets; raises seed and Series A/B funding.
• 2021: raises a Series C, then a US$150 million extension led by FTX at about US$2 billion.
• 2022: FTX SAFE implies about US$1.25 billion; FTX collapses in November.
• 2023 onwards: cuts costs, explores strategic options and focuses on core markets.

Why cross-border payments in Africa are hard

Africa has 54 countries, dozens of currencies and many separate payment systems, so sending money from Nigeria to Kenya or Ghana to Uganda has traditionally been slow and expensive, often routed through US dollars and correspondent banks. Mobile money is widespread within countries but networks rarely connect across borders. Regulations, licensing requirements and foreign exchange controls differ by country. Companies that can connect these systems create real value, but must manage complex compliance and currency risks.

Lessons from the FTX collapse

FTX invested in many startups before its collapse in 2022. For portfolio companies, losing a lead investor meant uncertainty about future funding, potential claims from FTX's bankruptcy estate and reputational questions. Chipper's experience shows the risk of relying heavily on a single investor, and why founders weigh the stability and reputation of investors, not just the valuation they offer.

Risks

• Currency volatility: sharp devaluations, such as Nigeria's naira, affect revenue in US dollars.
• Regulation: licensing rules differ in every market and can change quickly.
• Funding: raising new capital may require a lower valuation.

Who uses Chipper Cash

Chipper's users are mostly young, mobile-first Africans who send money to friends and family in other countries, along with members of the African diaspora in the US and UK supporting relatives at home. Small businesses and online sellers use it to receive payments across borders.

Questions for users

• Which countries and payout methods are supported for your transfer?
• What exchange rate and fees apply compared with alternatives?
• Which regulator licenses the service in your country?

Latest developments (October 2026)

Chipper Cash has focused on profitability rather than expansion. Reporting based on TechCabal said the company stopped burning cash in the final quarter of 2025, with Nigeria and Uganda as leading revenue markets, and chief executive Ham Serunjogi described a shift toward tighter margin and cash control. It reported more than seven million customers across nine African countries by late 2025. We could not confirm reports of a large 2025 funding round, so the 2021 valuation of about US$2 billion remains the latest sourced figure.

What to watch

Watch for new funding or a sale, profitability, growth of Chipper Network and regulatory developments in key markets. Our guide to the largest African startups compares Chipper with peers.

Takeaways

African users and diaspora can send money across borders cheaply. Founders can learn from the risks of investor concentration. Investors should treat the US$2 billion figure as a peak, not a current value.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.

1. TechCrunch