MoneyGram and Vodafone have teamed up to enable customers to send money from MoneyGram locations to M-Pesa accounts worldwide.

Customers of Dallas, Texas-based MoneyGram will be able to send money to M-Pesa accounts from 334,000 MoneyGram agents in 200 countries. They will also be able to transfer funds to M-Pesa users at MoneyGram.com, and via mobile apps on iPhones and Android or Windows 8 phones.

Owned by London, U.K.-based Vodafone, M-Pesa allows customers to pay bills, buy airtime and withdraw, transfer or deposit money via mobile phones.

As of 30 September 2013, M-Pesa had 16 million active customers and 165,000 agents in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Fiji, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania. Vodafone says it intends to launch M-Pesa in new markets during 2014.

Initial launch of the joint M-Pesa/MoneyGram service will begin in the second quarter of 2014 and continue throughout the year, the two companies said in a news release.

"We're excited about the opportunity to leverage our platform to expand our reach to these digital channels," Alex Hoffmann, MoneyGram’s senior vice president of global product management and emerging channels, said in a statement. "This agreement furthers our goal of joining with fast and reliable mobile wallets so consumers may send money anywhere and any way they want."

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