Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF), a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage start-ups in the Middle East and Africa, recently announced an investment in African Finclusion Group. The money committed and the quantity of shares purchased were not made public. Finclusion Group will be able to expand its activity in its African markets thanks to the funds granted.
Finclusion Group co-founder and deputy managing director Timothy Nuy remarked
“Finclusion Group is pleased to welcome Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund as a shareholder. The group will continue to expand while establishing a solid collaboration for future global expansion,” Finclusion Group co-founder and deputy managing director Timothy Nuy remarked.
This is the Egyptian fund’s second investment in Africa outside of Egypt and its third investment in a fintech startup. This is further capital for Finclusion Group, which raised $20 million in January.
The neo-bank, which provides customers with salary, “buy now and pay later” payment solutions, and loan offers, will continue to expand in its primary operating countries in East and Southern Africa, most notably in Eswatini, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Timothy Nuy’s company, launched in 2019, will also expand its variety of banking goods and services for the benefit of its consumers.
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
Finclusion Group, a fintech that leverages AI algorithms to provide financial services to African customers through a variety of credit-centric products, has raised $20 million in pre-Series A loan and equity funding.
Andela and Flutterwave co-founder Iyin Aboyeji (who invested through his VC firm Future Africa), LendInvest founder Christian Faes, and ComplyAdvantage founder Charlie Delingpole are among the round’s investors.
Finclusion founder Timothy Nuy
Amandine Lobelle, Jai Mahtani, Sudeep Ramnani, Jonathan Doerr, Richard Aseme (RCA Ventures), and Klemens Hallmann are just a few of the others. Manuel Koser, Alexander Schuetz, Christian Angermayer, and Leo Stiegeler were among the company’s prior investors, as were Manuel Koser, Alexander Schuetz, Christian Angermayer, and Leo Stiegeler.
Finclusion received debt funding from local currency funds in Eswatini and South Africa, which made up the majority of the entire round. It comes after Lendable, an emerging markets lending provider, provided a $20 million debt facility in September.
The fintech company plans to extend its operations in South Africa, Eswatini, Kenya, Namibia, and Tanzania, as well as Mozambique and Uganda. According to a statement by the company, the expansion, facilitated by the recent financing, is part of Finclusion’s strategy to “drive financial inclusion within market segments that have traditionally been underserved across the African continent, with a current focus on southern and eastern Africa.”
Why The Investors Invested
The company has acquired some appreciable traction since it was started in 2018. So far, the Africa-focused fintech has granted more than $300 million in loans to over 240,000 consumers. Following the Lendable debt capital issue in September, the company’s monthly disbursements have increased by 140 percent in the last 18 months. From December 2020 to December 2021, Finclusion’s loan book increased by 30%.
Founded in 2019 by Timothy Nuy, Finclusion drives financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa using AI powered and data driven lending.
Finclusion has produced consumer-facing loan solutions to bridge the credit gap in nations where it operates since its establishment in 2018.
There’s SmartAdvance, where Finclusion provides solutions for employees’ financial well-being through employer relationships. Employees can take loans off the back of their paycheck, deduct from their payroll, and lend through employer partnerships with its wage streaming product, which offers payroll loans and future wage loans.
Finclusion, on the other hand, only has 28,000 active loan customers, which is less than ten percent of the total customers it has served since 2018.
“This is one of the reasons we are going into a neobank strategy to maintain old and new users rather than effectively churning them out,” said chief executive Timothy Nuy on why the company is transitioning into a neobank now.
Finclusion had always intended to become a neobank, according to Nuy. He noted that taking a credit-first approach, which numerous digital banks in Africa have taken, such as Carbon and FairMoney, was a wonderful client acquisition tool for the organization.
Finclusion has begun to diversify its offers, following the lead of other credit-first neobanks. In order to build a pan-African neobank, Nuy stated the company has an insurance product and wants to offer savings products, cards, and purchase now, pay later offers via a merchant network.
In addition, the corporation has administrative headquarters in each of its five markets to oversee operations. Finclusion says it would launch another in West Africa soon after opening one in Kenya and South Africa for the eastern and southern regions (its tech teams are already in these countries).
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
Finclusion Group, a financial technology startup, has purchased a strategic investment in HelloHR, a South African payroll software startup, for an unknown sum. According to HelloHR, the acquisition is part of Finclusion Group’s objective to provide comprehensive financial wellness solutions through employers, and it will benefit HelloHR clients by providing them with access to Finclusion Group’s wage-streaming, financial wellness, and insurance products.
Finclusion CEO Timothy Nuy
“HelloHR will contribute to the Finclusion Group platform, strengthening all offerings through improved customer experience and increased customer retention rates. The relationship allows the group to provide employers in SmartAdvance access to payroll services,” Finclusion CEO Timothy Nuy said, while adding that the acquisition kicks off a symbiotic relationship that will improve both firms’ distinct product offerings.
HelloHR is a cloud-based payroll system that connects accountants, businesses, and employees in South Africa, and it works well with the Xero cloud-based accounting software.
The value given by the integration of payroll administration and employee benefits infrastructure, according to Bernard Bravenboer, founder of HelloHR, is often only observed in large corporate organizations.
“This partnership democratises access to financial wellness products and access to earned wages, and can give a much-needed boost to the employee experience. We know that small and medium businesses are the future of South Africa, and this is where we can play our part.”
The solution, which is accessible via a web application, automates the payroll process, including essential leave and tax adjustments, saving time and lowering the risk of human error, according to Finclusion. The user interface also provides a platform for administrators to communicate all payroll-related information, with bespoke user experiences created expressly for each access level, according to the document.
Founded in 2019 by Timothy Nuy, Finclusion drives financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa using AI powered and data driven lending.
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
