Why We Invested: HUB2 is Building Francophone Africa’s Leading Digital Payments Infrastructure

How did TLcom meet the founders of HUB2, Ashley and Jean-Rémi?

TLcom was looking for a first investment opportunity in Francophone Africa when HUB2 came to us as an inbound from the company’s financial advisers. Even with our typically cautious approach to early-stage opportunities presented by intermediaries, the initial pitch was compelling. HUB2 has a robust fintech product and is already a market leader in Cote d’Ivoire. With its first-mover advantage, we saw a company that could dominate last-mile fintech infrastructure in the region, starting with mobile money wallets. We were particularly impressed by Ashley’s strategic vision, technical leadership and telco background. With Jean-Rémi’s operational leadership and previous VC-backed founder experience, we saw a co-CEO dynamic that could deliver HUB2’s bold post-Series A plans.

What problem is HUB2 solving?

Starting with mobile wallets, HUB2 is enabling payment interoperability in Francophone Africa, one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile money markets. Sub-Saharan Africa, driven by Francophone West Africa, accounts for almost two-thirds of new wallets globally. HUB2’s initial focus markets (West and Central Africa) offer a massive $335bn TAM opportunity, with volumes growing at around 60% each year. Still, the market is constrained by limited interoperability between the region’s 150 independent operators and 750m registered wallets due to technical, regulatory, and operational complexities. HUB2’s mobile-first network infrastructure enables secure, real-time payments transaction processing. The company offers a plug-and-play solution to large and enterprise-level customers. It removes the need for multiple integrations across markets, payment types and partners and allows them to focus on their core B2C products.

What differentiates HUB2?

HUB2 has built an exceptionally well-rated product. Its APIs deliver superior value, with a success rate close to 100%, compared to 40-50% with local payment aggregators. Already the most expansive last-mile provider for mobile wallets in West and Central Francophone Africa, the company’s robust and stable network is live in 9 countries, enables over 40 payment types and has direct and indirect connections to most major mobile money operators. The vision is to develop a pan-continental payment network to meet the multi-country payment needs of Africa’s biggest volume B2C companies, drawing parallels with Rapyd, the “AWS of fintech”, which provides APIs that enable fintech and e-commerce clients such as Rakuten, Meta, Netflix, and Uber to collect payments, make pay-outs, and maintain wallets across 900 payment methods in over 100 countries.

Why is TLcom excited about its investment in HUB2?

We’re excited by HUB2’s ambition to be the dominant fintech infrastructure in Francophone West Africa. The company has already delivered remarkable progress pre-Series A, enabling clients in financial services and retail/e-commerce, including players like OnAfriq, Djamo, Daba Finance, CinetPay and Jumia, across different current and potential use cases, including payments aggregation, remittances, digital banking, e-commerce and ride-hailing. HUB2 has the potential to build a solid competitive moat based on network effects as the platform becomes exponentially more valuable with increasing size and complexity over time. We also believe firmly in the co-founders, Ashley and Jean-Rémi, who combine deep industry knowledge, relevant telco sector relationships and proven technical and operational know-how to lead the company in its post-Series A era.

Ashley Gauzere and Jean-Rémi Kouchakji