June 28, 2022

Ghanaian Mobile FinTech Company Raises $30M In Equity Funding Round

Ghana-based Fintech company, Fido, has raised $30 million in equity investment in a Series A funding round. The funding round, led by the equity fund company, Fortissimo Capital, included venture capital firm Yard Ventures and a series of other private angel investors. 

Fido, co-founded by Nadav Topolski, Nir Zepkowitz, and Tomer Edry in 2012, provides mobile loans of up to $250 to small businesses and individuals. In addition, the fintech company aims to build a digital bank, which will give hundreds of adults in Africa access to flexible loans and other financial services, which is known to be a prominent issue in the continent. 

The loans, repayable in single or multiple installments over six months, make instant credit decisions for all customers, regardless of financial track record. The app’s banking system relies heavily on real-time machine models to approve or reject a loan while simultaneously delivering leading default rates.

“The banking sector (in Africa) is complicated and bureaucratic; its processes are time-consuming and not very customer-friendly, so access to financial services remain beyond the reach of a significant segment of the population,” Fido said in a statement.

“Fido changes this paradigm by automating the customer journey from onboarding to credit analysis and providing financial guidance. Its autonomous banking platform and unique machine learning-risk models make instant credit decisions for customers with no financial track record while helping reduce operational costs.”

Over the years, the fintech company has underwritten 1.5 million loans to over 300,000 customers in Ghana, and those figures are due to increase once the company expands into other markets. 

The extra funding will go towards expanding Fido’s current customer base throughout Africa and establishing a new technology center in Ghana to train software engineers and potentially launch new financial products.

Kumba Kpakima

Kumba Kpakima is a reporter at POCIT. A documentary about the knife crime epidemic in the UK got her a nomination for the UK's #30toWatch Young Journalists of the Year.