Nigeria is a major market in West Africa which Zambian fintech and neobank, Lupiya, is planning to penetrate after exploring the Southern African countries, Muchu Kaingu, Co-founder and CTO, Lupiya, told BusinessDay on the sideline of ongoing GITEX GLOBAL event in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
Ahead of their presentation at the ongoing GITEX GLOBAL event, Kaingu said Lupiya has successfully secured new funding to scale operations in its home market and in new ones.
Lupiya clinched $50,000 for the top spot at the GITEX Africa Supernova Challenge during Morocco’s GITEX Africa 2024 in May. The conference was the continent’s most significant technology and digital economy trade show, attracting over 30,000 visitors.
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“Basically, we are using AI and digital technology to separate ourselves from the traditional lenders such as the banks and multinational financial institutions (MFIs). On our platform, you can get a near instant credit decision.
“We leverage over 200 data points of alternative data to arrive at a credit score. We have been growing through the years. We started with $500. You can imagine the lessons learnt since then. We have raised over $14million till date. We also have notable investors.
When Kamala Harris came to Africa she couldn’t leave until she saw us, this speaks to the kind of work we do for the greater good,” Kaingu further told BusinessDay.
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He said this year, the firm is raising a series A amount of $10million in addition to what it got last year.
Founded in 2016, Lupiya works to bridge the financial inclusion gap by offering easy-to-use, technology-driven financial solutions to the unbanked and underbanked populations in Zambia.
In addition to newly secured funds, it had, last year, secured $8.25 million Series A round led by Alitheia IDF Fund, with substantial participation from INOKS Capital SA and the German Investment Bank KfW DEG.
The funding is channeled into enhancing Lupiya’s technological infrastructure, expand its range of financial products, and scale its operations to reach more customers.
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The world’s largest startup and investment event, Expand North Star, is fostering the next frontier of tech and innovation. Additionally, it seeks to redefine the future of money, blockchain, and creativity. Accelerating the next generation of scaleups, the world’s largest start-up pitch competition, Supernova Challenge 2.0, also graces GITEX GLOBAL with the winners claiming a share of the $200,000 prize pool.
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