Three Months After Raising $42m, Nigeria’s FairMoney Secures Additional Funding

Three months after raising a $42 million Series B funding, FairMoney has secured additional funding to develop new digital banking services in Nigeria.

The funding came from the UK investment holding firm TLG Capital. 

The investment was carried out via Africa Growth Impact Fund (AGIF), an investment vehicle managed by TLG Capital, and which targets SMEs in English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. Although the amount committed has not been disclosed, AGIF is known to make investments of between $ 1 million and $15 million.

FairMoney, which started operations in Nigeria in 2017 and extended to India in 2019, wants to “increase its portfolio while delivering services to financially excluded and underserved people,” according to Laurin Hainy, the company’s co-founder and director general.

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Tiger Global Management, DST, Flourish Ventures, Newfund, and Speedinvest contributed $42 million in Series B funding to the financial institution that now includes TLG Capital as an investor.

FairMoney team
The team at FairMoney. Source: FairMoney

Laurin Hainy, Matthieu Gendreau, and Nicolas Berthozat co-founded the digital bank, which began with mobile loans before expanding into savings and investment products. 

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FairMoney, which has over 5 million clients in Nigeria and India, was given quality issuer ratings (BBB / A3 / Stable) as well as long-term BBB (NG) and A3 (NG) short-term investment-grade ratings by the South African financial rating agency Global Credit Ratings due to its strong liquidity, resilient balance sheet, good underwriting practices, and strong growth trajectory (GCR).

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer