First Ally Capital backs Mathesis to scale AI credit infrastructure across Nigeria

First Ally Capital has invested in Nigerian financial technology company Mathesis Analytics, providing fresh capital to expand its artificial intelligence-powered credit infrastructure as lenders increasingly seek new ways to reach millions of Nigerians with little or no formal credit history.

The investment is expected to accelerate the company’s efforts to strengthen its credit decisioning platform, which enables banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions to assess borrowers using alternative behavioural and transactional data rather than relying solely on traditional credit records.

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The move comes as Nigeria’s financial services industry continues to grapple with one of its biggest challenges: extending credit to millions of individuals and small businesses that remain outside the formal credit ecosystem despite actively using digital financial services.

While millions of Nigerians borrow from microfinance institutions, save through fintech platforms, use mobile wallets, or access Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products, much of that financial activity remains fragmented across different platforms, making it difficult for lenders to build a complete picture of a customer’s creditworthiness.

Mathesis says its proprietary technology addresses that problem by creating what it calls “Personal Equity”, a unified measure of an individual’s financial behaviour aggregated across multiple institutions. The platform analyses alternative financial signals to produce a more comprehensive credit profile, allowing lenders to make better-informed lending decisions.

“This investment from First Ally Capital validates our approach to reshaping credit infrastructure.

‘By quantifying ‘Personal Equity,’ we empower lenders to safely look beyond the constraints of formal credit histories and recognise a borrower’s true creditworthiness. This capital enables us to accelerate our pan-African expansion while maintaining the robust, institutional-grade infrastructure our partners rely on,” said Winston Osuchukwu, founder and chief executive officer of Mathesis Analytics.

The investment reflects growing institutional interest in financial technology companies building infrastructure rather than consumer-facing applications. As digital lending expands across Africa, investors are increasingly backing firms that provide the underlying technology powering banks and fintech platforms.

Industry analysts say infrastructure providers could play a critical role in narrowing Nigeria’s estimated multi-trillion-naira credit gap by helping lenders reduce default risks while extending loans to previously underserved customers.

Traditional credit scoring models often depend on formal banking records, leaving many Nigerians, particularly those in the informal economy, without access to affordable credit despite maintaining consistent repayment histories across digital platforms.

By incorporating alternative data such as repayment behaviour, savings patterns and digital financial transactions, AI-powered credit assessment platforms are emerging as an important tool for improving financial inclusion.

Mathesis said financial institutions can integrate its technology in two ways: as an intelligence layer that plugs into existing lending software through application programming interfaces (APIs), or as a full end-to-end lending platform.

According to the company, its infrastructure has already supported more than eight million loans issued to over two million unique borrowers in Nigeria, providing lenders with AI-driven credit intelligence to improve lending decisions.

The company is also expanding beyond Nigeria as part of a broader pan-African strategy, with the latest investment expected to support its regional growth ambitions.

For First Ally Capital, the deal underscores its strategy of backing technology-driven businesses capable of transforming financial services.

“Our investment in Mathesis Analytics reflects our strong belief in the company’s vision and our commitment to supporting forward-thinking enterprises that deliver excellence,” said Ebenezer Olufowose, managing director and chief executive officer of First Ally Capital.

He said the investment aligns with the firm’s broader objective of supporting innovative financial solutions across investment banking, asset management, inclusive banking and other financial services.

The funding comes at a time when Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem is evolving beyond payments into more sophisticated financial infrastructure, including embedded finance, digital identity, credit analytics and artificial intelligence.

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Experts believe improving access to reliable credit information will become increasingly important as banks and fintech companies compete for retail and SME customers while trying to maintain healthy loan portfolios.

For Mathesis, the new funding provides both financial backing and institutional validation as it seeks to build the digital infrastructure that could reshape how credit decisions are made in Nigeria and, eventually, across Africa. By helping lenders see beyond conventional credit scores, the company is betting that artificial intelligence and alternative data can unlock responsible lending for millions of borrowers who have long remained invisible to the formal financial system.