Fido, a leading fintech company whose
mission is to empower individuals and entrepreneurs to reach financial freedom,
has announced the completion of a $30 million series-A financing led by
Fortissimo Capital along with participation from Yard Ventures, the venture
capital fund of Harvard alumni, and additional private investors.
This
brings the company’s total funding to $38 million thus far.
The
additional funds will be used to launch new category-creating financial
products in Ghana, grow the company’s customer base throughout Africa, and
establish a technology centre in Accra to train engineers for higher levels of
software development.
A statement issued by Fido said the
fintech was created in response to the lack of access to financial services
which hinders the growth of entrepreneurship in Africa.
"The
banking sector (in Africa) is complicated and bureaucratic, its processes are
time-consuming and not very customer-friendly, so access to financial services
remains beyond the reach of a significant segment of the population," the
statement said.
"Fido
changes this paradigm by automating the whole customer journey from onboarding
to credit analysis and even provides financial guidance. Its autonomous banking
platform and unique machine learning-risk models, make instant credit decisions
even for customers with no financial track record, while helping reduce
operational costs. Fido’s autonomous banking system relies on mission-critical,
real-time machine learning models for risk scoring and fraud detection, based
on non-financial data, to approve or reject a loan in real-time, and
simultaneously deliver market-leading default rates. The B2C mobile application
is fast, data-driven, low latency, and built on a distributed cloud
architecture, helping boost accessibility to financial services to unbanked regions".
Fido is going beyond just
digital-financial services and aims to educate customers on how to improve
their credit scores over time and incentivize positive financial behaviour.
Later
this year, the company plans to launch savings and cost-effective payment
products in some of its markets to help users easily improve their financial
health with a product that’s simple to use.
To
support the launch of its new financial products Fido will expand the tech team
in Tel Aviv and open a tech hub in Accra to attract and develop local talent.
Fido
is led by a seasoned team of creative entrepreneurs and AI veterans, that
include CEO Alon Eitan, CTO Guy Shaked, and CCO Kelvin Abdallah, who joined
co-founder Nadav Topolski in mid-2021 to triple revenues over the past year.
The company has grown to a team of 60 that includes data scientists, engineers,
and financiers, while already having underwritten 1.5 million loans to more
than 340,000 customers at a value of over $150 million.
“We
are building a new culture of money in Africa by making financial services
instant and accessible,” said Alon Eitan, Fido CEO.
“We’re proud of what we are building
and grateful to have such a talented team and experienced group of investors
backing our vision. This is not only about making financial services
accessible, but also about making them better: instant, simple, and
transparent. We are just getting started.”
“We
are truly impressed by the team’s ability to underwrite people instantly while
delivering sustainable economics. This differentiates them from the other
players in the space,” said Yochai Hacohen, Partner at Fortissimo Capital.
“Fido
brings a genuinely differentiated offering that solves an enormous challenge by
using disruptive technologies. Now world-class fintech technology is available
to all, for mutual growth and shared prosperity.”
“In addition to being impressed by the team and upside of
Fido’s business model, we take pride in supporting such an impactful business
that is helping to democratize access to financial services for those who were
previously neglected by traditional institutions,” said Ron Levin, Partner of
Yard Ventures and author of The Higher Purpose Venture Capital Blog, which
profiles venture-backed companies that are helping to solve problems around
wealth inequality.
Source:Graphic.com.gh