This week’s version of Finovate World appears to be like at current fintech headlines from Nigeria and South Africa.
BAS Group acquired a majority stake in Nigeria’s Zuvy
Nigeria-based diversified monetary providers group BAS Group introduced this week that it has acquired a minority stake in Zuvy, an area fintech that makes a speciality of bill financing. The transfer offers BAS Group greater than 50% of the corporate, a stake that analysts estimate could possibly be valued between $1.5 million and $3 million. The transaction will even place BAS Group Chief Working Officer, Adnan Kayode, on the helm of Zuvy—though the agency will proceed to function independently.
“This acquisition of Zuvy goes past merely increasing our funding portfolio—it represents a strategic alignment with our core mission of growing a complete, technology-enabled monetary ecosystem for Africa,” BAS Group Founder and CEO Abdulateef Hussein stated.
Co-founded in 2023 by Angel Onuoha and Ahmed Shehu, Zuvy offers bill financing to companies within the FMCG (“fast-moving client items”) and healthcare sectors, in addition to to corporations in provide chain industries. Zuvy stories financing invoices value greater than ₦1 billion ($650,000) for 1,500 small companies over the previous two years. As a part of the deal, Onuoha and Shehu will retain minority stakes within the firm, however will now not have operational roles. The 2 founders have moved on to give attention to their new healthcare enterprise, Avelis Well being.
“We take nice delight in Zuvy’s accomplishments and the constructive influence we’ve created for hundreds of Nigerian enterprises,” Onuoha stated. “BAS Group represents the right associate to advance Zuvy’s development trajectory whereas we focus our efforts on addressing vital healthcare challenges within the American market.”
BAS Group’s deal for Zuvy comes after the agency launched a lending enterprise that gives collateralized loans to small and medium-sized companies. The bulk stake in Zuvy will allow BAS Group so as to add uncollateralized lending to its providing.
South African fintech Lesaka acquired Financial institution Zero
Lesaka Applied sciences reported that its subsidiary, Lesaka Applied sciences Proprietary Ltd, has agreed to amass Financial institution Zero Mutual Financial institution (Financial institution Zero). Topic to customary closing circumstances, the acquisition will likely be settled by way of a mixture of recent share issuance and as much as ZAR 91 million ($5.1 million) in money. The whole worth of the transaction is estimated to be $61 million.
“The acquisition of Financial institution Zero is a transformative occasion in Lesaka’s journey, enabling us to higher serve our shoppers, retailers, and enterprise shoppers by embedding a trusted, well-engineered neobank functionality into our fintech platform,” Lesaka Chairman Ali Mazanderani stated. “I’m delighted to welcome the Financial institution Zero group to Lesaka as companions.”
Based in 2018 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, Financial institution Zero is a contemporary “app-only” financial institution for each people and companies. As of April 2025, the establishment had a deposit base of greater than ZAR 400 million ($22.4 million), and greater than 40,000 funded accounts throughout South Africa. Co-launched by Michael Jordaan (Chairman) and Yatin Narsai (CEO), Financial institution Zero boasts 45% black- and 20% female-ownership. Put up-acquisition, Jordaan will be part of the Lesaka Board of Administrators whereas Narsai continues to function CEO.
“Financial institution Zero was constructed from the bottom as much as ship a safe, digital-first banking expertise that places management again within the fingers of shoppers,” Narsai stated. “Our focus has at all times been on utilizing know-how to take away friction, decrease prices, and problem legacy banking norms. Becoming a member of forces with Lesaka permits us to speed up that mission at scale—reaching extra prospects, sooner—whereas staying true to the rules that outline who we’re.”
TransUnion invests, companions with Omnisient
Talking of minority investments, TransUnion introduced that it has secured a minority funding in—and a strategic partnership with—South Africa-based fintech Omnisient. Omnisient affords an information collaboration and superior analytics platform that allows corporations to securely entry high-value client information ecosystems and combine different information units to help sensible decision-making.
The strategic partnership will improve TransUnion’s capacity to carry extra of the estimated 500 million un- and underbanked Africans into the formal monetary system. By leveraging different information at scale, TransUnion’s partnership with Omnisient will allow extra new-to-credit and credit-underserved shoppers to start constructing a credit score profile and begin the journey towards higher, long-term monetary empowerment and alternative.
“Conventional information fashions typically fail to replicate the lived realities of African shoppers, leaving tens of millions with out entry to credit score and the alternatives it permits,” TransUnion Africa Regional President/CEO Lee Naik stated. “Monetary inclusion is central to unlocking financial development throughout the continent. That’s why we’re dedicated to main with daring, Africa-born options designed to see the unseen and serve the credit-invisible by integrating different datasets alongside conventional credit score information in ways in which replicate uniquely African contexts and realities.”
Together with the funding (quantity undisclosed) and strategic partnership, a member of TransUnion will be part of Omnisient’s board of administrators.
TransUnion’s funding and strategic partnership comes at a time when demand is rising worldwide for entry to different information and options that leverage this information whereas making certain privateness, enhancing belief, and creating worth for monetary establishments. Omnisient’s know-how makes use of tokenized keys to characterize private info within the information set, avoiding the switch of uncooked information and offering privateness all through your complete course of. The corporate’s many-to-many information connectivity between banks and different monetary providers suppliers and third-parties helps promote innovation within the subject of information collaboration.
“Our privacy-preserving information collaboration platform brings monetary providers and client manufacturers collectively, permitting them to find, validate, and commercialize new different sources of client behavioral and transactional information with out having to trade delicate private info,” Omnisient Co-Founder and Group CEO Jon Jacobson stated.
Based in 2019 in Cape City, South Africa, Omnisient is presently headquartered within the UK. TransUnion most just lately demoed its know-how at FinovateSpring 2024, displaying how its Enhanced BreachIQ resolution offers fashionable, gamified client id safety.
Right here is our have a look at fintech innovation world wide.
Central and Southern Asia
- Indian paytech Pine Labs introduced plans for an IPO and a objective of a $6 billion valuation.
- UnaFinancial and JSCB Microcreditbank partnered to launch a digital credit score service in Uzbekistan.
- SEBI-registered On-line Bond Platform Supplier (OBPP) IndiaBonds.com raised $3.77 million in funding.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Open funds platform Belvo and digital financial institution Ualá teamed as much as launch new digital credit-scoring mannequin leveraging a large-scale integration of employment information.
- Paytech EBANX solid a partnership with Mexican BNPL fintech APLAZO.
- Revolut introduced plans to amass Argentina-based lender Banco Cetelem from BNP Paribas.
Asia-Pacific
- South Korean banks shaped a consortium to subject a Gained-backed stablecoin.
- New Zealand-based accounting platform Xero agreed to amass SMB invoice pay platform Melio.
- Australian open banking platform supplier Frollo launched its Frollo for Brokers on-line portal for mortgage brokers.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- TransUnion introduced a minority funding in and strategic associate with South African fintech Omnisient.
- Monetary crime compliance firm ThetaRay partnered with Africa-based monetary providers agency I&M Group.
- Kenya-based PesaLink inked a Memorandun of Understanding with Fintech Alliance to advance inclusive cost options.
Central and Jap Europe
- Germany-based insurer Munich Re teamed up with Instnt to boost its ID fraud loss insurance coverage protection.
- NaroIQ, a German digital platform that helps corporations launch and handle ETFs and mutual funds, raised $6.5 million in seed funding.
- Deutsche Financial institution turned to Silverflow for the launch of its European cloud-native funds platform.
Center East and Northern Africa
- Israeli-based fintech Tipalti acquired AI-powered money stream administration specialist Assertion.
- Egyptian funds platform Octane secured $5.2 million in new funding.
- Libya’s Central Financial institution launched the nation’s first digital cost discussion board in a bid to spur fintech modernization.
Photograph by onaopemipo Rufus
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