(Bloomberg) — Moniepoint, a Nigerian money transfer startup, raised $110 million in a stock sale to expand domestically and across Africa, the chief executive said.

The Series C funding round, backed by an Africa investment fund owned by Google and Development Partners International LLP, will enable the company to launch cross-border remittances and expand its banking services to French-speaking African countries, said Tosin Eniolorunda, Founder and Managing Director.

“We are at different levels of commitment for the approval of remittances,” Eniolorunda said in an interview. “We want to deploy the banking system in other countries.”

Founded in 2015 to provide infrastructure and payment solutions in Africa’s most populous country, Moniepoint has expanded rapidly by taking advantage of Nigeria’s central bank’s cashless policy and widespread insecurity that has promoted the use of digital platforms for payments, according to Eniolorunda.

The Financial Times previously reported that the funding round gave the company unicorn status, worth more than $1 billion, citing unidentified people close to the company. This puts the company in the ranks of other players like Flutterwave, OPay and Jumia Technologies AG who have all reached or exceeded the elusive valuation while exploring the Nigerian market.

Read: Cash crunch proves boon for mobile money startups in Nigeria

Moniepoint processes 800 million transactions, worth around $17 billion every month, according to Eniolorunda. The company plans to begin inventory management “soon” to complement other banking services, including debit cards, savings, loans and payments, he said.

–With the help of Antony Sguazzin.

(Updates throughout with comments from the CEO)

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