We're back with Season 2 of The Comparable, and for episode 1 we're spotlighting two fintech players that are taking their respective markets by storm – Moniepoint, which started their journey in Nigeria, and Abhi, which started in Pakistan.Moniepoint, formerly known as TeamApt, was established in Lagos, Nigeria in 2015, first finding success in launching Point of Sale terminals in 2019 across Nigeria that captured a massive market share because they were reliable, while incumbents were often plagued by network failures. In the last 11 years, Moniepoint has evolved to become one of the African continent’s most important business banking and payments platforms, particularly for small and medium sized businesses. In October 2024, it officially became a unicorn with their $110 million Series C round, and the company is now expanding their footprint in East Africa. Abhi has become a significant fintech player in the MENAP region in just the last 5 years. Founded in 2021, Abhi started as an Earned Wage Access (EWA) player in Pakistan, but that product was just the hook that led to the launch of a number of other financial products, from invoice factoring to payroll processing, to then acquiring FINCA, a microfinance bank in Pakistan, to expanding their presence to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and now Oman. The company is now raising their Series B round of funding. Both companies built smartly for the nuance of their markets, building outwards from a “hook” product that resonated with their respective customer bases and then layering other products in their offering. Both have scaled outside their initial markets, both have leveraged acquisitions as a strategy in interesting ways and both are now market leaders that have raised significant capital.