Credable secures $2.5M seed to expand its digital banking offering into Africa

Dubai-based fintech group, Credable has raised a $2.5 million seed round led by a pan-African VC fund, Ventures Platform Fund IV LP.

With participation from other investors including Launch Africa, MAGIC Fund, ACASIA Ventures, AAIC Investment, Adaverse, Emurgo Africa and other strategic angel investors, according to a statement shared with Benjamindada.com.

This investment will go towards building Credable's team and scaling its market presence across Africa and the MENASA region from its current presence in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Pakistan.

"The shift to ubiquitous digital banking and embedded finance has never been more evident in our markets," Credable’s CEO, Nadeem Juma, said. "Our Seed Round represents a significant milestone that will support our continued mission to transform the digital banking landscape in our markets and for Credable to be the enabler of access to the banking products people need."

Founded in 2021 by Nadeem Juma, Jad Abbas and Michael Tarimo, Credable provides a digital banking infrastructure that enables businesses across emerging markets to offer banking products to their customers quickly, safely and easily.

Customers of Credable's partner businesses benefit from having access to an array of banking products in the digital channels they know and use daily. The fintech partners with a range of businesses from banks and mobile network operators
to eCommerce platforms and fintech players.

Since launching its first product less than a year ago, over 1.2 million people have opened accounts on Credable's platform and 200,000+ customers (including consumers and SMEs) across its markets have used its banking products. These products include a range of savings products, term loans, overdrafts, asset financing and other credit solutions.

As of March 2023, Credable’s platform has seen the disbursement of over $5 million worth of loans and about $3 million of deposits into its savings products.

"In line with our thesis, Credable is helping businesses create and capture value by
expanding their addressable market to provide financial services to previously excluded market segments and communities, and we believe that this will become a flywheel that powers economic growth in emerging markets," Dr Dotun Olowoporoku, General Partner at Ventures Platform, said.

"Jad, Nadeem and Mike are experienced operators and entrepreneurs with deep product knowledge, experience and network in the markets they are operating in. They understand the problem on a deep level and have experience building financial solutions. It’s a privilege to back them on this journey and we are excited about the future."

This $2.5 million seed fund is coming a year after the company raised a pre-seed round from The Continent Venture Partners (TCVP).

"This reinforces our conviction in Credable’s B2B2C model and our partnership approach as the model that is best positioned to scale financial services to the underbanked across our markets," Credable's CFO, Jad Abbas, added.