Carbon, a trailblazer in Nigeria’s financial sector, has recently announced the acquisition of FinTech startup Vella Finance via its parent company, One Credit Limited.
This strategic move is coupled with the launch of an innovative AI-powered business banking platform.
The acquisition serves as a strategic step for Carbon to bolster its offerings to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), leveraging the latest artificial intelligence technologies. Although the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, the merger highlights Carbon’s ambition to extend its pioneering financial solutions beyond consumer finance to meet the sophisticated needs of SMEs.
Carbon, since its inception in 2016, has revolutionized consumer finance in Nigeria, offering seamless access to finance through mobile devices. Its expansion into SME financing reflects a continued commitment to leveraging technology for financial inclusion.
Vella Finance, with its focus on serving the unique needs of SMEs, brings to the table a platform that combines AI-driven insights, low-cost loans, and smart financial management tools, aimed at addressing the challenges faced by businesses in Nigeria.
Post-acquisition, Vella Finance’s business customers will be transitioned to Carbon Business, with an option for individual customers to upgrade to business accounts.
The newly launched Carbon Business platform promises an array of features designed to support SMEs, including AI-powered transaction analysis, competitive low-interest loans, sub-accounts for financial organization, automated income splitting, and upcoming team-based account management capabilities. These features are tailored to simplify financial operations and foster business growth.
Chijioke Dozie, co-founder of Carbon said, “Carbon spearheaded the consumer finance revolution in Nigeria in 2016. Our goal was to give consumers unprecedented access to finance from their mobile devices.
“Since then we have provided some loans to SMEs but not in a manner that meets our standards or the customers’ expectations. We have known the Vella Finance team for some
time and admired their innovation and understanding of the market needs. We saw in them the same innovative and pioneering spirit that ignited Carbon. They had built an SME platform that we believe is unrivaled in the market and given our aspirations, the deal was a no-brainer.”
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