Triodos Investment Management (Triodos IM) has expanded its presence in the fintech sector within emerging and developing markets. The Triodos Microfinance Fund and Triodos Fair Share Fund have jointly provided a debt facility of EUR 2 million ($2.1M) to UsPlus in South Africa. UsPlus is a high-impact tech company specializing in offering flexible working capital solutions to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector.
In alignment with the latest generation of fintech companies in South Africa, UsPlus endeavors to leverage technological advantages to target financially excluded businesses and entrepreneurs profitably. Established in 2015, the company focuses on providing alternative funding solutions to SMEs through discounting products. This financing method enables SMEs to sell their invoices to a third party at a discounted rate, allowing them immediate access to cash. The innovative aspect of this product lies in its ability to provide SMEs with easy and rapid access to working capital, which would otherwise be tied up in unpaid invoices. UsPlus has facilitated approximately USD 133 million in funding to SMEs through its debtor discounting product.
Investment Officer Stanley Anyetei expressed, “This investment in UsPlus demonstrates Triodos Investment Management’s ongoing commitment to investing in innovation for financial inclusion, addressing the access to finance gap across the African continent. We eagerly anticipate collaborating with the UsPlus team to deepen our impact on this continent by contributing to inclusive economic growth.”
UsPlus acquires clients through various channels, including word of mouth, industry meetings, accountancy firms, and their web portal. Each client must be legally registered with a minimum track record of three fiscal years and undergo an assessment of debtors/supply agreements. UsPlus also ensures that potential clients do not engage in activities negatively impacting the environment and social issues, based on the IFC Exclusion list. Once these criteria are met, UsPlus initiates the access process, analyzing the client’s operational performance, among other factors. The entire process, except for the client visit, is conducted digitally, minimizing the timeline to disbursement. The maximum turnaround time is one week for new clients and half a day for existing clients.
UsPlus has demonstrated operational performance and resilience over the past eight years. The debt facility provided by the Triodos IM financial inclusion funds aims to support this innovative fintech in scaling up and diversifying its funding base, thereby further enhancing support for the underserved SME sector in South Africa.
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.