Credable raised $2.5 Million to expand digital banking platform for customers in Uganda and Kenya
The seed funding round, reported by TechCrunch, will help the company expand its services, which include a number of banking products for customers in Uganda, Kenya and Credable’s home country of Tanzania.
Credable, an upstart in this category that provides its clients with the technology stack, scoring capabilities and banking partners, has raised a $2.5 million seed round. It follows the pre-seed round of the embedded finance platform secured in early 2021 and led by The Continent Venture Partners (TCVP).
Last May, Credable launched officially with two products: a 30-day term loan product in partnership with Vodacom M-Pesa in Tanzania and a short-term lending product for Diamond Trust Bank in Kenya. Since then, the fintech has enabled over six products for various businesses, from banks and mobile network operators to e-commerce platforms and fintech players across three markets: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
So far, over 1.2 million people have opened accounts on its platform and more than 200,000 customers (including consumers and SMEs) have used its banking products. These include savings products, term loans, overdrafts, asset financing and other credit solutions. Credable’s platform has helped disburse $5 million worth of loans disbursed and seen over $3 million of deposits into its savings products, per a statement shared by the startup.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Nadeem Juma, the startup’s chief executive, said the embedded finance platform, which wants to become the “Unit for emerging markets,” is looking to expand its offerings to large markets where the regulatory environment is conducive and businesses with profitable channels across MENAP and West Africa: Pakistan and Nigeria are top on that list. With this new financing, Credable plans to launch four more products this year and partner with businesses in these countries.
“The problem we’re trying to solve is that a huge population of underbanked customers need banking services to improve their livelihoods. They are in different channels that they use every day, like telco-led mobile money, e-commerce platforms and gig economy apps,” said the CEO who founded the startup with Jad Abbas and Michael Tarimo. “Rather than try to create a new channel to bank these customers, we aim to enable these channels through a B2B2C offering that provides the customers with the banking services they need in the channels they’re already in.”
Pan-African early-stage VC firm Ventures Platform led the round, which welcomed participation from Launch Africa, MAGIC Fund, ACASIA Ventures, AAIC Investment, Adaverse/Emurgo Africa and other strategic angel investors. Ventures Platform’s general partner Dotun Olowoporoku said the firm believes that Credable’s platform, which allows businesses to provide financial services to previously excluded market segments, will create a flywheel that powers economic growth in emerging markets.
