Fintech startups in Nigeria are mainly focused on enabling money transfers and providing financial services to the unbanked or the underbanked. For a fintech like Infibranches, their approach is different even though they offer digital payment services to solar energy providers.
This is perhaps the first fintech to offer this kind of service in Nigeria. Today, Infibranches is announcing that it has raised a $2 million investment from Shell-backed All On, an independent, off-grid energy impact investment company.
Olusola Owoyemi, Infibranches CEO, said “Through this investment, Infibranches plans to speed up customer acquisition in its current markets. This will also improve existing products like Omnibranches, which has served over a million customers, and introduce new products and services to address energy distribution issues”
The platform also supports agent banking businesses, enabling them to provide services such as cash payments and withdrawals, money transfers, utility and telco payments to name a few.
Shell Foundation CEO Sam Parker said: “The initiative’s work with Infibranches has shown how important it is to continue addressing market barriers, enabling enterprises to more quickly expand their life-changing energy solutions to households and SMEs across Nigeria.”
All On’s investment will trigger the next phase of Infibranches’ growth by financing inventory and agent acquisition, product and technology development, and provide working capital for business operations towards the company’s distribution of Solar Home Systems for households and commercial users across Nigeria with a special focus in the Niger Delta.
“We are particularly thrilled about this deal because it’s an innovative business model that solves the payments and collections problems that Solar Home System distributors and mini-grid developers face across Nigeria,” said Dr. Wiebe Boer, All On CEO. “This partnership merges fintech and renewables in a way we haven’t seen in Nigeria before and will enable tens of thousands of new electricity connections.”
