TOYOTA TSUSHO CORPORATION
Toyota Tsusho Corporation ('Toyota Tsusho') -- through its group company CFAO SAS ('CFAO') and Mobility 54 Investment SAS ('Mobility 54') -- invested in InTouch SAS ('InTouch'), a company developing digital payment services mainly for West African countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
The existing shareholders and strategic partners of InTouch -- a major French energy company TOTAL Energies ('Total') and a major French digital payment service company Worldline SA ('Worldline') -- also decided to engage in their additional investment in InTouch.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, it is deemed that only about 40% of the adult population holds personal banking accounts due to a series of factors; notably the lack of ATMs, account maintenance and transaction costs. On the other hand, approximately 80% of the adult population owns mobile phones and has access to digital payment services enabling remittances and withdrawals via mobile phone terminals without having a bank account. Digital payment services are used in a variety of industries -- such as retail, utility, and mobile phone companies -- and are expected to further grow in the region.
InTouch is a digital payment aggregator*1 integrating 230 digital payment services into a single payment platform -- such as a large number of mobile money brands, insurance services and online bill payments etc. The company is currently operating in 10 countries (mainly in West Africa) and providing services like TouchPay*2 in more than 30,000 locations, including 1,200 of Total's gas stations. InTouch plans to expand its business throughout Africa by collaborating with Toyota Tsusho Group.
Under the partnership with InTouch, Toyota Tsusho Group will actively promote the digitalization of its payment operations across all business segments (automobiles, healthcare, consumer goods, etc.) throughout Africa -- contributing to improve the convenience for its valued customers in Africa. In addition, this investment will further accelerate deployments of digital payments in sectors such as public transportation, logistics, and automobile finance, which are traditionally dominated by cash transactions.
Toyota Tsusho Group -- through CFAO and Mobility 54 -- will continue to invest in companies developing innovative technologies and services for Africa. The group is pursuing to help solve the social and industrial challenges in Africa by supporting expansions of innovative partners' businesses and creating strong synergies between our group and the partners.
*1 Digital payment aggregator: An intermediary that aggregates and processes multiple digital payments such as mobile money, QR code/bar code payments, and credit card payments between general consumers and businesses. By using a digital payment aggregator, businesses can flexibly respond to the diverse payment needs of consumers.
*2 TouchPay: A service that provides contactless payments, remittances, microfinance, etc. using mobile phones.
Company name | InTouch SAS |
Location | Paris, France |
Active countries | Total of 10 countries, including Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Kenya |
Representative
| Founder & CEO: Omar Cissé |
Established
| June 2014 |
Business areas
| Providing technologies and services for aggregating and streamlining digital payments |
Company name | CFAO SAS |
Location< | Sèvres, France |
Shareholders | Toyota Tsusho 100% |
Representative
| CEO: Richard Bielle |
Established
| 1852 |
Business areas
| Automobile import/export/sales/maintenance, wholesale of pharmaceuticals, beverage and daily necessities manufacturing/sales, construction machinery and elevator sales/maintenance, leasing business, IT business, etc. |
Company name | Mobility 54 Investment SAS |
Location | Sèvres, France |
Shareholders | Toyota Tsusho 70%, CFAO 30% |
Representative
| President & CEO: Takeshi Watanabe |
Established
| October 2019 |
Business areas
|
Investment and financing for start-up companies for Africa Creating synergy with Toyota Tsusho and CFAO Group businesses |
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Toyota Tsusho Corporation published this content on 07 July 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 07 July 2021 05:09:07 UTC.
