Nigerian peer-to-peer (P2P) lending startup Sycamore has closed an undisclosed seed investment round as it tries to expand its operations. The undisclosed seed fundraising round was led by US-based VC company White Hibiscus Capital (WHC), and features a number of other private investors.
“We’ve always been paranoid about giving our customers unique experiences. We didn’t want to just push out another “loan app” into the market without offering any additional value to them,” said Mayowa Adeosun, Sycamore’s COO. “Being the customer-centric business that we are, we engaged our customers on their needs. We are proud that our app does face everyday — the management of loans given to — or received from — friends and family almost everyday.”
The money will help Sycamore to raise market awareness, double down on its financial education effort, and acquire adequate engineering expertise, all in order to increase its capacity as it launches a strategy to scale to other African countries.
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“Sycamore is doing an amazing job of getting loans to small businesses in record time,” said Bade Aluko, managing partner at WHC. “I love the team’s technologically-driven approach to making things seamless for its customers, and WHC looks forward to having Sycamore operational in other African countries.”
A Look At What Sycamore Does
Babatunde Akin-Moses, Onyinye Okonji, and Mayowa Adeosun founded Sycamore in 2019 with the goal of disbursing company loans on the same day via its website and recently developed mobile app.
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Thousands of small businesses in Nigeria have already received millions of dollars from the startup, as well as a feature that allows users to manage loans provided to loved ones. Sycamore’s “Loan Friends” function lets users request money from friends or family members, and the app notifies them when the money is due.
Sycamore P2P Sycamore P2P
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh