Optasia plans to grow its financial-services business in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America in the next three years, seeking a larger market of under-banked customers. About 1.4 billion adults globally are unbanked due to a lack of money, distance to the nearest financial institution and insufficient documentation. Founded in 2012, Dubai-based Optasia, formerly Channel VAS, is valued at more than $1 billion and backed by investors Ethos Capital Partners LLP, Development Partners International LLP and Waha Capital PJSC.
Trading in multiple jurisdictions has meant Optasia has been able to offset a sell-off in African currencies with those in the Middle East. The firm has grown at a faster pace than inflation, which is at multiyear highs in nations such as Ghana and Nigeria where it operates. Stock markets have slumped across the globe with central banks determined to quash inflation even at the cost of a recession, unleashing the most aggressive tightening of monetary policy in a generation.