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Continuing from the last post, Ruddy explained that most lenders are from North America, and the team managing lender relations is entirely based in the U.S., so the majority of lenders are American. Interestingly, many employees initially joined as lenders, found it profitable, and later became part of the company 😂. The founder, however, is Kenyan and splits his time between Kenya and the U.S., spending most of his time in Kenya managing the credit union and local borrowers. Therefore, while borrowers are predominantly Kenyan, lenders are primarily North American.Since this is a lending model, not equity investment, lenders don’t... Continue reading

Continuing from the last post, after connecting with the previous African microlending company, I happened to come across another firm that also does lending in Africa. The guy running it is named J. He made his early fortune in Silicon Valley investing in startups, and after reaching financial freedom, he turned to philanthropy. But he quickly realized that handing money over to charities wasn’t very effective—so he decided to take matters into his own hands.He started by helping provide access to clean water in Haiti, but soon saw the massive opportunity in Africa. By serving micro-entrepreneurs in Africa, he found... Continue reading

Continuing from the last post, J explained that their target borrowers are small to micro-sized businesses—those needing only $1–3 million a year in funding. These tech-enabled businesses are becoming increasingly common across Africa. Because of their widespread presence, geographic and sector diversification has become a key risk mitigation factor.He pointed out that these types of small businesses are usually overlooked by traditional institutional investors—they’re too small to bother with. But that’s precisely why they’re profitable: they’re nimble, can grow fast with the right funding, and have the potential to reach the scale that institutions eventually will care about. The earliest... Continue reading