Acasia and Ventures Platform in fintech deal
Egyptian early-stage venture capital firm Acasia Ventures has joined a $2.5 million seed round for Dubai-based digital banking platform Credable, led by Ventures Platform.
Credable is a B2B2C platform that offers digital banking infrastructure, allowing businesses across emerging markets to provide banking products to their customers efficiently, securely, and conveniently. Customers of Credable’s partner businesses gain access to a range of banking products through familiar digital channels.
Ordinarily, businesses seeking to launch financial services must design products, create or obtain a tech stack, establish a credit scoring system, secure capital and regulatory framework, and manage the products. Credable’s platform streamlines this process end-to-end, enabling businesses to launch a customer-centric product within weeks.
The funding will be used to roll out Credable’s committed product pipeline in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya and to scale the company’s products in new markets. The company plans to expand its team and continue improving its tech stack.
“In the past decade, emerging markets have seen companies enter the credit space, as well as increasing traction of the unbanked population into the formal financial sector. That is particularly why since launching its first product in May 2022, Credable has had promising traction demand for its platform which demonstrates a need in the market,” said Acasia Ventures general partner Biola Alabi. “The team at Credable is a mix of seasoned entrepreneurs with a deep understanding of the institutional challenge that plagues the underbanked in Africa, this aligns with our mission at Acasia to back founders solving everyday challenges at the bottom of the pyramid.”
In May 2022, Credable launched its first product with a leading telecommunications operator in Tanzania. To date, 1.2 million customers have opted for an account, more than 200,000 users have borrowed or saved via the platform, over $5 million in loans have been disbursed, and $2.5 million of savings deposits have been received from customers.
“Egypt and Nigeria are two key markets that Credable is exploring within its long-term expansion plans, making Acasia Ventures an optimal strategic partner given its footprint in both countries,” CEO and founder of Credable, Nadeem Juma stated. “Since one of our main goals is to enable fintech in emerging markets, we find both markets very exciting.”
Credable’s platform allows banks to access a broader customer base, while enabling fintech and businesses of various sizes to offer digital banking products without building the underlying infrastructure, obtaining regulatory approvals, assessing credit risk, or establishing a direct relationship with a bank.