Flow Global raises fund to expand and scale rapidly within and across markets
Flow Global, a Fintech company that provides unique digital growth capital solutions to small Retail Merchants in Uganda and Rwanda, has successfully raised bridge funding from two investors, a Development Finance Institution and a Commercial Impact Investor housed in Europe and Asia respectively.
The first funding was secured in November 2022 while the most recent was closed in March 2023. This funding sets Flow Global on a path to reach global profitability by mid-2023 as it continues to expand and scale rapidly within and across markets.
Flow Global is a trendsetter in terms of providing growth financing solutions in the form of digital or e-money float advances to Mobile Money Merchants and it has been growing rapidly to meet this market need. Flow’s target customers are merchants offering mobile money and agency banking services, who lack the digital working capital (e-money float) to meet ever-increasing customer demand.
Flow’s current established markets (Uganda and Rwanda) are home to approximately 403 000 mobile money merchants (a number which continues to grow) servicing over 50 million users and the latter figure balloons to over 605 million in sub-Saharan Africa which is Flow’s regional expansion focus.
Based on analytics of transactional-level data, Flow provides merchants with customized digital loans and the impact is transformational with 69% of merchants seeing an improvement in their revenue within the first month and growing by 40% over 6 months on average.
The innovative Fintech company is the only float lender which is ecosystem agnostic by design as it allows merchants on multiple mobile money ecosystems to get float advances. Furthermore, it uniquely delivers its tailor-made financing solutions through a blend of the use of its own proprietary cutting-edge technology called the Flow Liquidity Engine (“FLE”) and a targeted “human touch”, reflecting the company’s incorporation of the lessons of microfinance into an inclusive Fintech operation.
The FLE is the centrepiece of Flow’s operations executing a range of operations to bring financing to small merchants at scale, which include client data analytics, KYC checks, credit scoring & decisioning, risk management, float advance management, and portfolio analytics, and digital field force management.
The “human touch” element involves face-to-face interactions with clients to establish the highest standard of KYC in what remains a (semi-)informal market and to build sticky client relationships that are based on trust and real-time understanding of customer needs.
Flow’s recent capital raise will help to grow its float advance book and sustain its pipeline conversion. The fintech has since received a sizable term sheet in convertible debt from another investor. This successful transaction was arranged by Verdant Capital and further solidifies its position as a leading advisor and manager for Inclusive Financial Institutions in Africa.
