Fair Money raises $42 million as it morphs into a digital bank

Fair Money raises $42 million as it morphs into a digital bank – FairMoney, like many other Nigerian fintechs, started out in the lending business and is about completing its evolution into being a full-fledged digital bank.

Today it announced a $42 million Series B round. It was led by Tiger Global Management with existing investors like DST Partners, Flourish Ventures, Newfund, and Speedinvest participating.

The investment comes after FairMoney raised $11 million Series A two years ago and €16 million in total within its first four years.

For Tiger Global which led the round, this is its fourth investment in an African startup after iRoko (2013), Takealot (2014) and Flutterwave (2021). Notably, this is the first time the investment firm is investing in two African startups within a year. A sign of its renewed interest in the African continent after a long hiatus.

FairMoney’s Performance

Founded in 2017 by Laurin Hainy, Matthieu Gendreau, and Nicolas Berthozat, FairMoney started as an online lender that provides instant loans and bill payments to customers in Nigeria.

From having a little over 100,000 users in its first year of operation, FairMoney has grown to have 1.3 million unique users who have made more than 6.5 million loan applications. Last year, the company disbursed a total loan volume of $93 million.

Since it expanded to India last year, the company has processed more than 500,000 loan applications from over 100,000 unique users.

This year, FairMoney achieved one of its crucial goals by acquiring a microfinance bank license in Nigeria. The license allows FairMoney to operate as a financial service provider in Nigeria.

Looking forward

Coming off a fantastic 2020, the company says it is projecting to disburse $300 million worth of loans this year. It’ll finance this by raising bonds.

FairMoney has come a long way since it started as a credit provider, it’s ambition according to co-founder Laurin Hainy is that “by the end of the year, its customers will have a full-fledged banking experience from P2P transfers and lending to debit cards and current accounts.”

It’s also working on a number of additional services including savings, stock trading, and crypto-trading products. These are subject to regulatory approvals.

With this new funding, FairMoney wants to focus on Nigeria and India, consolidating its position before any expansion. While it’s not expanding further geographically, its talent pool is, with about 150 open positions.

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