Fintech startups offering small loans have been gaining traction in Africa, winning over customers with the promise of quick, collateral-free credit.
Migo, a Nigeria-focused fintech startup that offers credit-as-a-service to large companies, plans to expand to Brazil after it raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Valor Capital Group.
The San Francisco-based company – previously known as Mines.io – develops artificial intelligence-driven products for large firms seeking to extend credit to the underbanked population in developing countries. This makes lending to the poor profitable for big corporations.
Migo offers its credit-scoring service to banks and telecommunications operators, enabling them to offer loans to their customers.
Migo counts MTN and 9Mobile — two of Nigeria’s largest telecoms operators — among its clients, along with newly confirmed tech unicorn Interswitch.
The digital credit provider for emerging markets was founded by Ekechi Nwokah and Kunle Olukotun in 2014.
Migo has originated more than 3 million loans to more than 1 million customers in Nigeria since 2017 through its corporate clients, according to company stats.
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“The global social inequality challenge is driven by a lack of access to credit. If you look at the middle class in developed countries, it is largely built on access to credit,” Migo founder and CEO Ekechi Nwokah told TechCrunch.
“What we are trying to do is to make prosperity available to all by reinventing the way people access and use credit,” he said.
