Nigerian fintech start-up, Aella has raised a $10 million debt financing round, from Singapore-based HQ Financial Group (HQF) to help the company scale its expansion across Africa.
Aella claims to have made a visible impact on the lives of more than 300,000 borrowers across its Employer-Backed and Direct-to-Consumer Verticals, who now have access to simple financial products. And it provides a broad array of financial products — savings, insurance, and specialized loans — specifically tailored for the needs of low-income households, entrepreneurs, and early-stage businesses in West Africa and beyond, with a view to lifting many out of poverty.
Aella was founded in late 2015 by Akin Jones, CEO and Akanbi Wale, CTO in Lagos, Nigeria and has remained committed to building trustworthy credit for emerging markets with an initial focus on Nigeria and the Philippines, where the company is licensed to operate.
“Lack of access to credit and financial services has been the main impediment to MSME growth and poverty reduction in several emerging economies. Aella’s commitment to providing trustworthy credit to millions of people in the world’s emerging markets is improving financial inclusion, enabling MSME expansion and accelerating economic growth and this raise will allow us scale our expansion across Africa quickly”, says Aella CEO, Akin Jones.
Sun Han Gyu, Chief Executive Officer of HQ Financial Group says: “We are excited to announce our partnership with Aella Credit which will significantly aid in the proliferation of micro-loan services to the underserved African populations who are unable to access banking services. HQF is impressed with their outstanding growth with very low default rate in the micro-loan business in Nigeria and look forward, through this initial investment of $10m to new growth opportunities in Africa and South Asia”.
HQF has deployed over $70m in investments since 2015.
