Fintech Farm, a British fintech company creating neobanks in emerging markets, has raised a $7.4 million investment to develop its new project.
The company announced over the weekend that it plans to enter eight emerging markets spread across Africa and Asia over the next two years, and Nigeria is the next market on its radar, where they expect to launch in the coming months.
Fintech Farm partners banks to enter new markets instead of getting its banking license. And in each country, neobanks are launched with new names, but the same design and mascot — a funny lion with a lilac mane.
The $7.4 million seed round was led by Flyer One Ventures and Solid, while Jiji, TA Ventures, U.Ventures, and A.Ventures Capital also participated.
Co-founder of Fintech Farm, Dmytro Dubilet, said: ‘We have a theory that digital banks have to be not only useful and simple but even entertaining. So, we’ve developed our app with beautiful design, useful functions and made it fun to use.
“There is a cool lion that you meet in the app. Also, there are a lot of nice micro-interactions that bring the UX to the next level. On the other hand, we have one of the best data science teams globally, so we can launch neobanks with credit products from Day 1 and issue credits even to clients with a thin credit history.”
Another co-founder, Nick Bezkrovnyy, said: “We see an opportunity for a ‘mass credit card’ in Nigeria. Currently, credit cards issued by traditional banks are limited to the upper-middle class.
“At the same time, APRs of credit offerings from neobanks and alternative lenders may well be over 100 per cent. We are going to fill this gap and accept those customers neglected by traditional banks and offer them fair interest rates.”
