Finovate International Africa: Investments, Acquisitions, and Partnerships
This week’s version of Finovate International appears to be like at current fintech headlines from Nigeria and South Africa.
Nigeria-based diversified monetary providers group BAS Group introduced this week that it has acquired a minority stake in Zuvy, a neighborhood fintech that focuses on bill financing. The transfer offers BAS Group greater than 50% of the corporate, a stake that analysts estimate may very well be valued between $1.5 million and $3 million. The transaction can 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 mentioned.
Co-founded in 2023 by Angel Onuoha and Ahmed Shehu, Zuvy offers bill financing to companies within the FMCG (“fast-moving shopper items”) and healthcare sectors, in addition to to firms in provide chain industries. Zuvy experiences 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 pleasure in Zuvy’s accomplishments and the optimistic affect we’ve created for hundreds of Nigerian enterprises,” Onuoha mentioned. “BAS Group represents the proper companion to advance Zuvy’s development trajectory whereas we focus our efforts on addressing essential 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.
Lesaka Applied sciences reported that its subsidiary, Lesaka Applied sciences Proprietary Ltd, has agreed to accumulate Financial institution Zero Mutual Financial institution (Financial institution Zero). Topic to customary closing situations, the acquisition will probably be settled through a mixture of recent share issuance and as much as ZAR 91 million ($5.1 million) in money. The full 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 raised serve our customers, retailers, and enterprise purchasers by embedding a trusted, well-engineered neobank functionality into our fintech platform,” Lesaka Chairman Ali Mazanderani mentioned. “I’m delighted to welcome the Financial institution Zero crew 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. Submit-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 mentioned. “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, quicker—whereas staying true to the ideas that outline who we’re.”
Talking of minority investments, introduced that it has secured a minority funding in—and a strategic partnership with—South Africa-based fintech Omnisient. Omnisient gives an information collaboration and superior analytics platform that permits firms to securely entry high-value shopper knowledge ecosystems and combine various knowledge units to help sensible decision-making.
The strategic partnership will improve TransUnion’s capability to deliver extra of the estimated 500 million un- and underbanked Africans into the formal monetary system. By leveraging various knowledge at scale, TransUnion’s partnership with Omnisient will allow extra new-to-credit and credit-underserved customers to start constructing a credit score profile and begin the journey towards larger, long-term monetary empowerment and alternative.
“Conventional knowledge fashions typically fail to mirror the lived realities of African customers, leaving thousands and thousands with out entry to credit score and the alternatives it permits,” TransUnion Africa Regional President/CEO Lee Naik mentioned. “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 various datasets alongside conventional credit score knowledge in ways in which mirror 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 various knowledge and options that leverage this knowledge whereas making certain privateness, enhancing belief, and creating worth for monetary establishments. Omnisient’s know-how makes use of tokenized keys to characterize private data within the knowledge set, avoiding the switch of uncooked knowledge and offering privateness all through the complete course of. The corporate’s many-to-many knowledge connectivity between banks and different monetary providers suppliers and third-parties helps promote innovation within the discipline of knowledge collaboration.
“Our privacy-preserving knowledge collaboration platform brings monetary providers and shopper manufacturers collectively, permitting them to find, validate, and commercialize new various sources of shopper behavioral and transactional knowledge with out having to change delicate private data,” Omnisient Co-Founder and Group CEO Jon Jacobson mentioned.
Based in 2019 in Cape City, South Africa, Omnisient is at the moment headquartered within the UK. TransUnion most not too long ago demoed its know-how at FinovateSpring 2024, displaying how its Enhanced BreachIQ resolution offers trendy, gamified shopper id safety.
Right here is our take a look at fintech innovation around the globe.
Central and Japanese Europe
Center East and Northern Africa
- 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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