SMEs: PayHippo Raises $1 Million Pre-seed Funding To Expand Its Reach

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SMEs: PayHippo Raises $1 Million Pre-seed Funding To Expand Its Reach-Brand Spur Nigeria
SMEs: PayHippo Raises $1 Million Pre-seed Funding To Expand Its Reach-Brand Spur Nigeria

Payhippo’s has raised $1m pre-seed to accelerate seamless financing for small to medium-sized African businesses.

Payhippo is looking to expand to other Nigerian cities as well as build its team of engineers.

The $1m pre-seed funding round is composed of Africa tech investors such as Ventures Platform, Future Africa, Launch Africa, Sherpa Ventures, and DFS Lab. International investors Hustle Fund and Mercy Corps Ventures also invested.

Speaking about the fundraise, co-founder of PayHippo, Chioma Okotcha said, “As a fintech company, the tech component of what we build is so important, because that’s really what drives how we can access the credit readiness of that SME and how much to give them. The tech does all this calculation in the backend, works out the underwriting, evaluates who the customer, and we’re able to give a loan that is within a safe range.”

Having identified the need and growth potential of SMEs in the country, enabling secure lending for them poses an opportunity worth seizing. The startup started disbursing its first set of loans in 2020 after the pandemic laid waste to some businesses and led to salary cuts.

Since its debut in 2020, PayHippo claims to have supplied N1.4 billion in over 2,600 loans to businesses. Most of these businesses include grocery stores and small retail stores.

About Payhippo

PayHippo was founded in January 2020 with the goal of providing SMEs with access to financing as well as help build credit scores. This is something conventional banks struggle with as they offer limited financial access to these businesses despite controlling two-thirds of the country’s economy.