One Finance Limited, OneFi, has secured a $5m debt facility for its consumer-facing platform, Paylater.
A statement by the company said the debt facility, from New York and Nairobi-based Lendable, would be used to deploy more loans to Paylater customers, specifically through a suite of innovative new products.
Since its launch in 2016, the company said Paylater had deployed over $60M across 750,000 loans, approving over 1,500 loans a day with an average of $80 per loan.
With this new debt facility, the company said it would double in size within Nigeria before entering new markets in 2019.
Speaking on the debt facility, OneFi Chief Executive Officer, Chijioke Dozie, said, “Securing this investment from Lendable represents the first internationally-backed commercial debt transaction for us, marking an important stage of our company’s development as we look to serve the “next billion”.
“As we transition into a full-service digital bank, this financing will allow us to execute on a number of new products. This includes our partnership with Visa, whereby we’ll be providing credit via QR codes at supermarkets, clinics and on public transport in H1 2019.”
Lendable, backed by Omidyar Network, KawiSafi Ventures, FMO, and other leading institutions, provides credit facilities to consumers and SME credit providers operating in digital lending, microfinance, and a range of pay-as-you-go services.
The Lendable CEO, Daniel Goldfarb, said, “We are incredibly excited to launch this partnership with OneFi, a market leader, as we build our presence in Nigeria. At Lendable, we build financial products to enable lending companies to scale, and we are proud to support OneFi’s mission of providing credit to the underbanked consumer and SME segments in Nigeria. They are an incredible example of a company that has found the product-market fit in a massive market, and are working tirelessly to provide best-in-class service to those customers.”
According to the company, the news comes just two months after the company secured Africa’s first credit rating for a fintech platform, achieving a “BB” Rating with a “Stable Outlook’ from Global Credit Rating Co.
