Startup - July 2, 2021

Fairmoney Secures $42 Million to Further its Banking Ambition

July 2, 2021

3 min read

Nigerian lending startup Fairmoney, has been shaping to become a full-fledged digital banking platform. For users of the platform, the first signal was the introduction of Fairmoney’s digital wallet, which saves your loan and lets you send the amount to any bank of your choice.

Fairmoney’s latest Series B funding raise of $42 million will bring the financial services startup a lot closer to competing favourably among the existing digital banking platforms across Africa such Kuda, V Bank, Eversend and Piggyvest.

The funding round was led by US hedge fund and investment firm, Tiger Global. Other participants in the round include partners of DST, Flourish Ventures, Newfund, and Speedinvest.

Founded in 2017 by Laurin Hainy (CEO), Matthieu Gendreau, Fairmoney (CTO), Nicolas Berthozat (Product co-founder), Fairmoney provides collateral-free loans via its mobile platforms in Nigeria and India. The startup plans to diversify its current offerings and increase its prominence with users.

According to co-founder and CEO Hainy, Fairmoney has obtained a Microfinance Bank (MfB) licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and aims to extend its services with the additional funds to further cement its position as a digital challenger bank for emerging markets.

“We’re going to delve into SME-lending and we’ll start offering current accounts to our customers”,z he says.

SME financing in Nigeria, like personal microloans, has a dismal track record. Most commercial banks have a preference for lending to government agencies and other large corporations while avoiding riskier personal and small business loans.

This trend also stems from the lack of credit data for customer and small startup owners, but Hainy believes the Nigerian credit system is transforming with the development of API-driven fintech firms such as Okra and Mono.

Hainy further mentions that the startup has gathered data on some of its consumers who are small business owners.