The founders and shareholders of ExpressCredit Finance Group (ExpressCredit) have agreed to integrate ExpressCredit into Eleving Group’s global business portfolio. ExpressCredit is an inclusive lender operating in Sub-Saharan Africa (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Lesotho). The company was established in 2016, and its core business is microfinance and inclusive lending across all its markets of operation. The full range of products includes government payroll loans, payroll loans to private companies, salary advance loans, and open-market loans. Eleving Group is one of the largest fintech players founded in Latvia with a strong presence in 16 global markets across 3 continents. The company […]
Read more
MAX expands operations into Cameroon and Ghana MAX is the leading vehicle subscription platform in Africa and was founded out of MIT Sloan in 2015 by Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh. MAX solves some of the biggest pain points that taxi drivers and commercial transport operators have. MAX partners with OEMs, EV manufacturers, and fleet owners to provide vehicle financing and subscriptions to gig drivers and mobility entrepreneurs via termed contracts and service bundles. These entrepreneurs are referred to by MAX as “Champions”, and what MAX does is to provide them with electric and low-emission vehicles. In addition to that, […]
Read more
Lipa Later Group (‘Lipa Later’) has announced a new partnership with Mastercard, to promote Buy Now, Pay Later Solutions in African Markets. Lipa Later is a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) Financial Technology Company (FinTech). It operates as a payment option that allows customers to access credit conveniently whilst purchasing commodities, electronics, and household items through affordable monthly instalments. The partnership with Mastercard is expected to create opportunities for low-income individuals, merchants, and other SMEs by streamlining credit accessibility and minimising challenges in transacting. Lipa Later’s technology and products promote seamless shopping interaction and transaction processing for consumers and businesses. […]
Read more
Yabx, a mass-market digital lending platform, has entered a partnership agreement with SC Ventures to expand access to financial services in Africa. SC Ventures is Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment, and ventures arm. Yabx has created an ecosystem of payment providers, merchant aggregators, e-commerce players, online retailers, mobile network operators, and financial services providers to acquire and underwrite customers. This enables Yabx to scale exponentially since all products are digitally created, managed, and distributed by Yabx. Yabx is a company, to address a deep-rooted need for responsible consumer finance in Africa. Africa has over 700 million mobile wallets and about […]
Read more
Finclusion Group Limited (“Fin”) has successfully undergone a brand unification, consolidating all its separate brands and products across Africa into one brand, and is now simply known as Fin. The company has taken this step to consolidate its footprint across Africa under one identity, thereby highlighting its ambition to be the leading international neobank across Sub-Saharan Africa. Fin has developed a neobanking platform product range, which focuses on creating value for employers, employees and consumers, whilst addressing the continent’s persistent credit gap. Its offerings include its Earned Wage Access product which gives employees access to earned and future wages through […]
Read more
Yabx Technologies (“Yabx”) is a financial technology company which through its partnerships with banks and telecom operators, underwrites and services target segments available over customer networks. The company operates in Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire, Columbia and Indonesia; and has recently expanded into Nigeria. The company plans to provide digital lending and other fintech products which service Nigeria’s new-to-credit segments and banks. Yabx partners with African banks to create large, scalable and profitable digital lending portfolios by leveraging its AI/ML driven fintech platform. Additionally, Yabx aims to help banks broaden their service offerings with new products such as BNPL […]
Read more
Bridge Taxi Finance, a leading provider of affordable credit facilities to South African entrepreneurs in the minibus taxi industry is partnering with Old Mutual Limited, a pan-African investment, savings, insurance, and banking group, to provide Wi-Fi to the South African population that uses minibus taxis as a mode of transport. The partnership will enable Old Mutual to market its financial services products to the lower end of the market. This strategic partnership between Bridge Taxi Finance and Old Mutual will deliver value creation across the businesses, while also providing financial inclusion by delivering a full suite of financial services in […]
Read more
The Race for Payments in Africa: Where are we now and what’s next? Verdant Capital participated in an important panel discussion on the “race” for digital payments at the Africa Fintech Summit in Nairobi this past month. Imran Patel, Director at Verdant Capital, was joined by senior executives from Africa’s leading payments-focused fintechs: Amandine Lobelle, Head of Business at Paystack, Leon Kiptum, Kenya Country Director at Chipper Cash, Hilda Gathuya, Kenyan Country Manager at Global Accelerex, and Sike Bamisebi, Chief Business Officer at Cellulant. The panel was moderated by Tage Kene-Okafor of TechCrunch. The discussion covered key drivers of digital payments including […]
Read more
MFS Africa is acquiring Baxi to expand its network into Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and perhaps its most fintech dynamic market. Nigeria is also the largest remittance market in Africa representing one-third of intra-Africa remittance flows, and is home to the largest number of SMEs. Verdant Capital views the two businesses as highly complimentary: Baxi simplifies and integrates online and offline payments for SMEs and merchants in Nigeria through its omni-channel distribution network; MFS Africa simplifies cross-border payments, integrating payments via one hub. The transaction further extends Verdant Capital’s track-record of advising on transactions shaping the fintech sector in Africa. […]
Read more
Finclusion, a leading fintech in Southern and Eastern Africa, has launched Click2Pay, a buy now, pay later (“BNPL”) business model supporting SMEs and other businesses in South Africa. Traditional credit-card payment is a system that desperately needs innovation as more and more consumers are opting out of interest-heavy purchases. This is pushing South African businesses to find solutions to attract and retain customers, such as the BNPL model. As the pandemic continues to reshape customers’ payments expectations, as well as providing a further spur to e-commerce volumes overall, BNPL is expected to play a vital role, offering a flexible alternative […]
Read more
Zeepay, the leading African challenger fintech with operations in over 10 African countries, acquired a 51 percent stake in Mangwee Mobile Money Zambia. The stake was acquired through a new issuance of shares. Mangwee started operations in 2018, and was initially set up to operate as an alternative wallet targeting university students in Zambia with the aim of driving the cost of mobile money services downward. Zeepay is the leading African challenger fintech with active operations in over 10 African countries. The company specializes in paying remittances into mobile money wallets across Africa and is regulated by both the Bank […]
Read more
Since launching its business in 2012, Tugende has consistently delivered strong growth while maintaining industry-leading portfolio quality. Tugende is a technology-driven innovative financial services company providing financing of productive assets and related services to its clients, including to family members. Although the business was originally focused on one product, motorcycle taxis, in one country, Uganda, the company launched its Kenyan operations 18 months ago and is successfully scaling its business in that market. To enhance its growth profile, Tugende conducts a diligent product development process that screens assets that have a latent demand for credit from MSMEs, runs a pilot […]
Read more
Tugende, a leading technology enabled MSME lender in East Africa, has closed an additional round of USD 3.6 million equity funding bringing the total amount raised in its Series A equity financing to USD 9.9 million. The latest round was led by Partech Africa, a member of the Partech Group and a leading global technology venture capital fund, and Enza Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on partnering with founders and management teams that leverage technology in scaling their business while solving social issues. This round is complementary to the first round led by Mobility 54, the Africa-focused venture […]
Read more
Verdant Capital won the award in a period of record deal volumes in Africa, with some USD 500 million of capital raising and M&A in the Fintech sector in 2020. Verdant Capital successfully completed transactions in the sector in 2020 with a total value of USD 40 million. The capital raises included businesses such as Tugende, a leading technology enabled MSME lender in East Africa, Retail Capital, South Africa’s Leading SME-credit tech player, and Planet42, the first mover in the South African socially-inclusive car-subscription market. The transactions were notable both for the commercial success of the businesses and their broad-based […]
Read more
In February, Edmund Higenbottam discussed the increasingly broad opportunities for investors in Africa’s fintech sector with African Business. The podcast coincided with the UK-Africa Fintech Summit on February 3-4, 2021. The podcast discussed key recent developments driving investor interest, including the accelerated digitization of the financial services hierarchy, dating back to the launch of M-Pesa in Kenya in 2007. Payments is a natural starting point for digitization, given the lower risk and easier adoption as a platform. Even within payments, there has been layers of advancement; for example, Capricorn Digital of Nigeria has advanced its business model from payment of […]
Read more
Category: Fintech, Media
Date: 8 February 2021
Edmund Higenbottam talks us through the vast opportunities for investors in Africa’s fintech sector. Read the full article and listen to the podcast here.
Read more
Africa is currently home to just under 500 Fintech firms¹, with South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya at the forefront of startup activity. So, what makes the continent so attractive? The African Fintech market is not only potentially very large, it is highly unpenetrated. Of the 1.1 billion people in sub-Sahara Africa, two-thirds of them are unbanked. Therefore, there is enormous scope for Fintechs to onboard these demographics into the financial sector. Furthermore, customers with access to credit is only a fraction of the proportion of the population with a bank account, so for innovative credit businesses, this is a huge […]
Read more
Verdant Capital completes its third fintech transaction in 2020 with the closing of the final leg of a USD 13 million debt and equity raise for the South African innovative car subscription business, Planet42. The capital raise follows transactions completed by Verdant Capital for innovative productive lease-financing business in East Africa, Tugende and technology-driven SME lender in South Africa, Retail Capital. Verdant Capital raised a total of USD 40 million in the sector in 2020, evidencing strong support for the sector in Africa from a variety of investors types, and from investors from around the World. In total in Africa in […]
Read more
Planet42 is an innovative car subscription company that helps individuals ignored by banks to get access to a personal vehicle. To date, Planet 42 has bought and delivered over 2 000 second-hand cars in South Africa, its primary market. The debt capital raise, which follows an equity capital raise of approx. USD 3 million earlier in the year will help the company get many more South African mobile. Its Rent-To-Buy product is a flexible alternative to traditional finance for individuals who do not have access to financing from banks as a result of stringent lending policies. Planet42 signs motor vehicle […]
Read more
Retail Capital is the leading and the first Merchant Cash Advance provider in the South African SME market. Retail Capital was incorporated in 2011 in Cape Town and has expanded geographically to Johannesburg and Durban; other cities are served by agents. In 2018, the company acquired First Asset Finance, an asset leasing business to bring an additional diversification into the credit book. The Asset Finance book which is mostly in the medical space has proved to be highly resistant during the covid-19 related lockdowns. The business is evolving into a broader technology- and channel-driven SME lender. As of March 2020, […]
Read more
Tugende has raised USD 10 million in debt and equity capital from a consortium of investors arranged by Verdant Capital. This capital raise includes a strategic equity investment by Mobility 54, the Africa-focused investment fund of Toyota Tsusho Corp. This adds further strength to Tugende’s balance sheet and pushes the total balance sheet size above USD 30 million. Additional details on the equity raise can be found here. Tugende’s business has rebounded robustly after the lockdowns imposed in Uganda to help stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Since the relaxation of the lockdowns, Tugende’s client payments have recovered to […]
Read more
One of Africa’s leading mobile money and digital remittances services provider, Zeepay, extends Visa payment solutions and credentials to simplify cross border remittances. Zeepay, a fast-growing African fintech, on 28 September 2020 announced a partnership with Visa that will allow Africans in the diaspora to send money directly onto Visa debit and prepaid cards in Ghana. Through the partnership, Zeepay will integrate Visa’s real-time push payments solution Visa Direct, with INSTNTMNY its money transfer platform, to provide users of the Zeepay app a fast, convenient and secure way to receive money and remittances directly into their eligible card credentials. This […]
Read more
Retail Capital, a leading and first Merchant Cash Advance provider in the South African SME market, has retained its national BB+ credit rating from the Global Credit Rating (“GCR”) agency. Despite a downgrade in the sovereign rating of the South African Economy, which was hit even harder by Covid-19, the local small and medium enterprise (SME) financier has retained its national BB+ credit rating while its international rating has dropped by one notch to B- in line with South Africa’s credit downgrade in March, both ratings have a stable outlook. Local and international investors remain confident to place more funding […]
Read more
Zeepay Ghana has been awarded the Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license to operate as a mobile financial services company by the Bank of Ghana, the regulator of banking and financial services. As a leading African fintech company with footprint in over 20 African markets, their service will now enable subscribers to utilise a complete set of mobile money services such as Cash In – Cash Out, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Transfers, Micro Insurance, Mortgage Remit, Airtime top up, Bill Payment and Pension Collections all in partnership with third parties such as Insurance Companies, Banks, and Pension Trustees amongst others extending its current […]
Read more
Following the successful closing of a 2.3-million-euro equity capital raise, Planet42 is seeking local and hard currency debt funding from specialist investors for the expansion of its second-hand vehicle long-term rental portfolio. Planet42 democratizes access to mobility by serving the financially excluded portion of the population – the people ignored by banks and other traditional financiers. The founding team of Planet42 has extensive experience in alternative vehicle finance and private equity in Africa. The CEO was previously a Country Manager in Mogo Finance while the CFO was the Head of African Investments for Trigon Capital. The customers of Planet42 are […]
Read more
