A $170 million funding round is the latest big-ticket fintech deal in Africa
8 April 2019 1:22 PM GMT
Branch offers its 3 million users ease of access to credit by analyzing their smartphone data.
- In one of the largest Series C funding rounds ever raised by an Africa-focused startup, mobile lending app Branch International has raised $170 million.
- The round is led by Foundation Capital and Visa with participation from B Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Formation 8, and Trinity Ventures.
- Branch International, which has more than 3 million users in Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania, as well as India and Mexico, uses smartphone data including GPS data, call logs, contact lists, and texts such as bank balance messages and bill payment receipts to determine credit worthiness.
- Indeed, of the 10 parameters measured in the World Bank's Doing Business report (pdf) for 2019, getting credit was ranked as the second-biggest problem when it comes to doing business in sub-Saharan Africa.
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