ArifPay
“Can ArifPay become the foundational digital payments operating system for Ethiopia's underserved merchants, banks, and consumers?”
Founded2021
HQAddis Ababa, Ethiopia
Total raised140 million ETB (~$3.5M USD)
Latest roundSeed, 2021
IndustryFintech / Payments Infrastructure
The story
Founded in 2021, ArifPay set out to be Ethiopia's foundational digital payments layer, targeting a market with low card penetration and a rapidly digitizing economy. It became Ethiopia's first licensed POS Payment System Operator, building both point-of-sale (ArifPOS) and gateway (ArifGateway) infrastructure simultaneously. By 2023–2024, the company expanded into developer APIs, mobile wallets, and utility/airtime/eCommerce bill payments, positioning itself as a full-stack payments platform for banks, retail chains, and MSMEs rather than a single-product fintech.
Product timeline
2021
Arifpay Financial Technologies S.C. established with 140 million Birr in seed funding to build digital payment infrastructure in Ethiopia.· pivot
2022
Received commercialization letter from the National Bank of Ethiopia, becoming licensed as Ethiopia's first POS Payment System Operator.· banking
2023
Officially launched digital payment operations, including ArifPOS and ArifGateway products, across Ethiopia.· payments
2024
Launched Arif 3.0 (December 2024) and achieved 110% year-over-year revenue growth through expanded product offerings.· pivot
2025
Launched Jami payment product (May 2025) and co-hosted Founders Friday events with WeVenture to grow the startup ecosystem.· pivot
Regulated entities
2
regulatory licences held by ArifPay
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
1 layer disclosed in ArifPay’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
ArifGateway (self-operated)
Accounting gap: significant