Black-Owned CredPal Secures $15M In Debt And Equity To Scale Buy-Now-Pay-Later Product

Buy now pay later (BNPL)—a short-term consumer financing that allows shoppers to purchase products online and pay in installments with nominal or no fees—is sweeping the global e-commerce sector.

In Africa, BNPL is beginning to take shape with CredPal, one of the earliest pioneers of buy now, pay later in Nigeria, closing a bridge round of $15 million in equity and debt — the latter constituting a very large chunk of the financing — to expand its consumer credit offerings across Africa.

The Y Combinator- and Google-backed CredPal allows individuals and businesses to pay for purchases in installments across online and offline merchants, for both large and small-ticket items—from as low as ₦2,000 ($4.81) up to ₦5 million ($12,030.45)

Launched in 2018 by CEO Fehintolu Olaogun and COO Olorunfemi Jegede – the startup claims to have over 85,000 active customers and more than 4,000 active merchants.

The debt financing was reportedly provided by Credit Direct, a subsidiary of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and a few unnamed financial institutions. 

Greenhouse Capital, a fintech and embedded finance-focused venture capital firm and an existing backer of CredPal also participated in this equity bridge round which is coming two years after CredPal raised $1.5 million in seed funding, money used to launch its credit card product.

New investors include Uncovered Fund, LongCommerce, First Circle Capital and Adii Pienaar, co-founder and former CEO of WooCommerce.

This new funding will be used to expand its consumer credit offerings in its home country, Nigeria, and expansion into other African markets, mainly Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Cameroon.