The Pretoria-based fintech firm Thuthukani has been acquired by South African neobank Fin as part of its development plans.
With the goal of providing middle- to lower-income Fin clients with access to affordable financing, Fin Home Loans, Thuthukani’s additional housing finance service will be rebranded to Fin Home Loans through the purchase and incorporated into Fin’s South African portfolio.
The Thuthukani purchase is an expansion of Fin’s ongoing strategy, the neobank said, which involves finding partners in other industries that have this need.
“The leadership of Thuthukani has done an excellent job in building up a needed development housing finance offering for the South African market. Under the product name Fin Home Loans and as part of our wide portfolio of consumer & SME finance products, we will expand the service’s distribution and options as we look to leverage and expand housing finance to other regions,” said Timothy Nuy, co-founder and co-CEO of Fin.
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The purchase gives Thuthukani a solid chance to advance within Fin’s ranks.
“I could not be more excited about integrating Thuthukani into Fin; this enables us to scale the business and bring our offering to many more people. I am also keen to explore all the synergies within the wider portfolio,” said Mark Seymour, founder of Thuthukani.
In order to create Africa’s first credit-led neobank in 2022, Fin, originally known as Finclusion Group, raised $22 million in total across two fundraising rounds. South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya are the current locations of its presence.
“Our latest South African acquisition, as well as the continued integration of a wide range of products into our neobanking platform, displays our strong ambition. We want to be the trusted provider to our customers throughout the continent for whatever they need financially to improve their lives and grow their business,” added Tonderai Mutesva, co-founder and co-CEO of Fin.
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