African Fintech neo-banking platform , Finclusion Group, has been awarded the Late Stage Start-Up of the Year Award at the AfricArena Southern African Summit which took place in Cape Town last week. The summit is regarded as one of the most significant tech start-up ecosystem events in the region and is a two-day event featuring pitches from start-ups operating across Southern Africa.
Finclusion Group CEO Timothy Nuy said that the group is ultimately building an African neo-bank, servicing the credit needs of a grossly underserved part of the world. In his presentation to the AfricArena panel as well as an audience of industry leaders in the technology, business and investment sectors he said that the group has a credit-led growth strategy underpinned by superior risk modelling. “It’s an honour to receive the award, but also to spend two days reconnecting with our peers in the industry and listening to the array of insightful presentations.”
Nuy says that Finclusion Groups’ strategy capitalises on the limited credit currently available to consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Credit penetration is currently sitting at 20% in Africa compared to the 60% penetration in other emerging markets,” says Nuy. “Credit card penetration is at 9% across the continent and formal credit files are largely out of reach for over 400 million working Sub-Saharan Africans. Furthermore, the credit that is accessible is available at predatory rates of 50-100% per term.”
Finclusion Group has held steady through the economic uncertainty and challenges of the past eighteen months, but with the recent $20 million secured in a funding round with leading fintech debt financier, Lendable, Nuy says that the group is positioned to scale substantially.
