Systems Limited announces investment from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Systems Limited announced on Wednesday that its subsidiary E-Processing Systems B.V. has received an investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"The Gates Foundation’s programme-related investment is being made through its $2.5 billion Strategic Investment Fund (SIF)," said Systems Limited in its notice labelled press release and sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday.

The company added that its subsidiary, E-Processing Systems, is a microretailer digitisation and payment platform, and owns/operates OneLoad, an online service that helps customers top-up mobile credit, pay utility bills, and transfer money.

As per the company, OneLoad has been able to expand its network to 50,000 retailers as of September 2021. Systems said that the company also received in-principle approval from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to operate as an Electronic Money Institution.

SYS: on the way up

It informed that the Gates Foundation’s programme-related investment will support OneLoad’s efforts to “bring more rural merchants into a digital ecosystem, enable increased digital transaction usage among low-income individuals, and provide additional financial services to the under-banked population.”

It added that the funding provided by the foundation follows an equity investment by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2020.

“We are delighted to receive the funding from the Gates Foundation. We appreciate the support of the foundation to further our mission of financial access and inclusion for the informal and unbanked retailers and consumers in Pakistan,” Muhammad Yar Hiraj, founder and CEO of OneLoad, was quoted as saying in the statement.

During 9MCY21 (January-September), Systems Limited's consolidated topline expanded by 49% year-on-year to reach Rs10.5 billion. It reported a profit of Rs2.52 billion during the nine-month period, compared with earnings of Rs1.62 billion in the same period of 2020.