{"id":903,"date":"2022-06-07T12:38:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T12:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/nigerias-indicina-raises-3m-to-help-businesses-offer-credit-to-their-customers-at-scale-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2022-06-07T12:38:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T12:38:09","slug":"nigerias-indicina-raises-3m-to-help-businesses-offer-credit-to-their-customers-at-scale-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale – TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, Africa\u2019s credit infrastructure has lagged behind the rest of the world due to low credit coverage from its bureaus. Per a World Bank report<\/a>, only 11% of Africa\u2019s population have their credit information recorded by private credit bureaus. And for those who are banked, only 17% have accessed loans.
Thus, there\u2019s a real need to record credit transactions. And as financial services in Africa continue to get digitized, accessing credit in real time becomes increasingly important.
Africa\u2019s credit bureau systems are due a revamp to tackle these issues, but since it\u2019s a hard ask, infrastructural platforms that provide credit underwriting processes are positioning themselves as options in the market. Indicina<\/a>, one such platform based in Lagos, Nigeria, is announcing its seed round of $3 million.
Berlin-headquartered and pan-European venture capital firm Target Global<\/a> led the round, adding to its long list of investments in Nigerian startups, including Kuda<\/a>, Kippa<\/a> and Edukoya<\/a>. The firm\u2019s partner Ricardo Sch\u00e4efer will join Indicina\u2019s board. Greycroft also participated in this round, and so did RV Ventures.
As established, access to credit is an integral part of financial services\u2019 adoption in any region. But while big corporates and high net worth individuals have no issues accessing loans from banks in Nigeria, retail and SME segments are somewhat neglected at scale.
This concern was too significant for Yvonne Johnson<\/a> to ignore while working as an executive with First Bank, one of Nigeria\u2019s largest banks by assets. And as digital banking — which includes the provision of loans — began to take off in the country, she told TechCrunch that she saw an opportunity to start Indicina in 2019 to provide credit rails and financial analytics tools for these businesses.
So lenders can use Indicina for credit scoring and bank sentiment analysis, getting access to ML-driven financial analytics and improved insights into consumers they currently don\u2019t have and derisk unsecured loans. Another interesting angle to Indicina\u2019s solution is that lenders who process loan applications manually can use the platform to double or triple their volume without blowing up their loan books.
\u201cWe\u2019ve never had any balance sheet. It\u2019s never been about offering credit for us. We want to focus on the infrastructure layer and provide good infrastructure for people to feel more comfortable,\u201d said CEO Johnson, who has investment banking experience from Merrill Lynch.
\u201cWe want lenders to be better informed about the decisions around credit so they can go to market faster with their digital product. So we\u2019ve never had a business model that included our balance sheet, which we\u2019ve always worked with the lenders.\u201d
Indicina\u2019s unique approach to solving Africa\u2019s credit problem is why Target Global and Greycroft invested in the company. According to both firms — as told by their partners, Sch\u00e4efer and Will Szczerbiak, respectively — they backed Indicina because it uses data to solve the loan eligibility problem previously decided by incomplete creditworthiness assessments.
The fintech partners with credit bureaus and open finance platforms. Johnson, who launched Indicina with CTO Jacob Ayokunle and chief data scientist Carlos del Carpio, said the platform has more than 120 customers, including banks, non-bank lenders and fintechs. Some include Polaris Bank, LipaLater, VFD, Zilla and CreditDirect. Per information on Indicina\u2019s website, it has helped these clientele process more than \u20a63 billion (~$5 million) loans from 10,000 bank statements and disbursed over \u20a6700 million (~$1.17 million).
The company\u2019s revenues come from API calls made by its customers when analyzing financial documents. The company will launch a B2C offering in the coming weeks to diversify offerings and revenue streams. While Indicina has already analyzed bank statements in real time for lenders to make informed decisions, it is betting that consumers would also need this information. The simplest way to describe it is a credit and financial management platform like Credit Karma.
\u201cWe have been working with the lenders; now we want to involve consumers. So they see what the lender would see if they are going to apply for a loan,\u201d Johnson, who is also an angel investor, having backed the likes of Flutterwave, Eden and Thndr, said on the call.<\/p>\n

\"Indicina\"<\/p>\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Indicina<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Indicina
Present in Nigeria and Kenya, this new funding will kickstart Indicina\u2019s expansion into other African markets. \u201cIt will also enable the company to reinforce its key product offerings, build more products for consumer credit recommendation, and bolster its infrastructure,\u201d the company\u2019s statement read.
Johnson stressed the importance of using the funding to get to the next iteration of Indicina\u2019s machine learning and data play on the call. \u201cIt\u2019s the core of what we do,\u201d said the founder, who heads the company with team members across four continents. The funding will allow Indicina to deepen product development in that area as it hires more data scientists and machine learning engineers.
Tiger Global leads $42M Series B in Nigerian credit-led neobank FairMoney<\/a><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, Africa\u2019s credit infrastructure has lagged behind the rest of the world due to low credit coverage from its bureaus. Per a World Bank report, only 11% of Africa\u2019s population have their credit information recorded by private credit bureaus. And for those who are banked, only 17% have accessed loans.Thus, there\u2019s a real need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch - City Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch City Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch City Watch %\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100083282987806\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-07T12:38:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/person\/6f3e02bc6483df72f5abc6e9624d0cc8\"},\"headline\":\"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale – TechCrunch\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-07T12:38:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903\"},\"wordCount\":838,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903\",\"name\":\"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch - City Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-07T12:38:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale – TechCrunch\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/\",\"name\":\"City Watch\",\"description\":\"People . Politics . Places\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"City Watch Nigeria\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#organization\",\"name\":\"City Watch\",\"alternateName\":\"City Watch Nigeria\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CITY-WATCH-logo2-11.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CITY-WATCH-logo2-11.jpg\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"City Watch\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100083282987806\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849\",\"ownershipFundingInfo\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849\",\"actionableFeedbackPolicy\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849\",\"correctionsPolicy\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849\",\"ethicsPolicy\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849\",\"diversityPolicy\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849\",\"diversityStaffingReport\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/person\/6f3e02bc6483df72f5abc6e9624d0cc8\",\"name\":\"Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bf4e084e8705b15a6bc090d68d4735851815e1058e5ca91c84b4619ae12ca90?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bf4e084e8705b15a6bc090d68d4735851815e1058e5ca91c84b4619ae12ca90?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Editor\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch - City Watch","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch City Watch","og_description":"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch City Watch %","og_url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903","og_site_name":"City Watch","article_publisher":"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100083282987806","article_published_time":"2022-06-07T12:38:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editor","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903"},"author":{"name":"Editor","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/person\/6f3e02bc6483df72f5abc6e9624d0cc8"},"headline":"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale – TechCrunch","datePublished":"2022-06-07T12:38:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903"},"wordCount":838,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903","url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903","name":"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale - TechCrunch - City Watch","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png","datePublished":"2022-06-07T12:38:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-45.png","width":600,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=903#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nigeria\u2019s Indicina raises $3M to help businesses offer credit to their customers at scale – TechCrunch"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/","name":"City Watch","description":"People . Politics . Places","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#organization"},"alternateName":"City Watch Nigeria","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#organization","name":"City Watch","alternateName":"City Watch Nigeria","url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CITY-WATCH-logo2-11.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/CITY-WATCH-logo2-11.jpg","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"City Watch"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100083282987806"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849","ownershipFundingInfo":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849","actionableFeedbackPolicy":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849","correctionsPolicy":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849","ethicsPolicy":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849","diversityPolicy":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849","diversityStaffingReport":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?page_id=3849"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/person\/6f3e02bc6483df72f5abc6e9624d0cc8","name":"Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bf4e084e8705b15a6bc090d68d4735851815e1058e5ca91c84b4619ae12ca90?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bf4e084e8705b15a6bc090d68d4735851815e1058e5ca91c84b4619ae12ca90?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Editor"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/citywatch.ng"],"url":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}