NIGERIA – Egypt-based VC fund, the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF), has invested an undisclosed amount in the Nigerian fintech startup, CredPal.
The CASF funding will be used to expand CredPal’s services across Africa with a focus on key markets, namely Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, and Cameroon.
“This support from Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund reinforces our mission to improve the quality of life of Africans through easy access to consumer credit. My co-founder and I are very pleased to have them as investment partners and can’t wait for how much we’ll achieve together,” Co-Founder and CEO, CredPal, stated Fehintolu Olaogun said.
Launched in 2018 by Fehintolu Olaogun and Olorunfemi Jegede, Y-Combinator and Google-backed CredPal is a financial technology company that has developed an innovative solution that allows businesses and individuals to buy anything and pay for it in installments across online and offline merchants by providing them with instant access to credit at the point of checkout.
“We couldn’t be more proud of our investment in CredPal, which is our first investment in Nigeria,” CEO of the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund, Aly El Shalakany, also commented, said.
“Fehintolu and Olorunfemi have built an incredible FinTech platform that provides credit to thousands of underserved individuals and businesses in Africa and will be expanding rapidly to other key markets, including Egypt.
“BNPL has proven to be a successful business model that is a compelling alternative to traditional forms of consumer credit, especially in emerging and frontier markets where credit card penetration is very low and usually unavailable to the masses.”
Credpal provides a platform that facilitates users to set up their accounts and choose their payment plans leveraging technology to minimize risk and seamlessly connect to multiple financial institutions that provide credit for customers. CredPal has over 85,000 active customers and more than 4,000 active merchants.
The funding comes two months after CredPal concluded a gap round of US$15 million in equity and debt financing to extend its customer credit operations across the continent.
The equity funding round was led by Greenhouse Capital with participation from new investors including Uncovered Fund, LongCommerce, First Circle Capital, and Adii Pienaar, co-founder and former CEO of WooCommerce.
The startup was to use the investment to expand into other African markets, primarily Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Cameroon.
Part of the new investment will also go toward securing a relationship with telecom provider Airtel Nigeria to enable low to middle-income earners to buy smartphones in installments.
The platform offers loans for amounts ranging from N5,000 (US$10.00) to N500,000 (US$1,000.00), which must be repaid within 30 to 180 days after making a 30% down payment. The rate of interest varies between 4% and 9%.
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