MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fintech Finclusion Assembles $20m in Equity, Debt Investment Round for Transformation into Bank, Expansion to Mozambique, Uganda

Eight individual investors reportedly are among the equity participants in a recent funding package assembled by Finclusion Group, a Mauritius-based financial technology (fintech) firm serving five countries in Africa. A majority of the package, which totaled the equivalent of USD 20 million, was in the form of debt from unspecified “local-currency funds in Eswatini and South Africa.” Finclusion plans to use the fresh cash to transition into a deposit-taking institution; grow its existing operations in Eswatini, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania and South Africa; and expand into Mozambique and Uganda.

Finclusion’s eight brands serve employers, their employees and other consumers with products such as HelloHR, which offers payroll and other services to support human resources operations; SmartAdvance, which provides personal loans and insurance; and Happy Pay, a “buy-now-pay-later platform empowering consumers with a zero-interest financial solutions.” The company’s other brands are TrustGro, Fractal Labs, Debt Helper and GetBucks as well as Nifty, which comprises NiftyPay, NiftyCredit and NiftyCover.

Finclusion serves approximately 28,000 customers as of February 2022. Since its inception in 2018, the company has disbursed loans of USD 310 million to 240,000 people.

By Sheen Gupta, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

TechCrunch article
https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/18/finclusion-raises-20m-to-build-out-credit-led-neobank-offerings-across-africa/

Finclusion homepage
https://www.finclusiongroup.com/

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