The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Feb 2024

YoFio is a fintech platform created to unlock technology-driven financing for underserved and underbanked micro businesses in Mexico. Its technology and a wide wholesaler partnership network enable an easier, faster, more competitive and more flexible offering for clients. The company has disbursed US$8 million in digital loans. YoFio states it aims to grow its portfolio to US$5 million this year. The platform is positioned to help close the financial inclusion gap for micro-enterprises in Mexico. Recent financing (equity and debt) is intended to support its growth and operations as it scales.

Participated · Debt Financing · Jan 2022

Float offers flexible short‑duration credit lines and a cash‑management platform that combines lending (invoice advances, revenue advances, invoice factoring) with software tools to manage accounts, wallets, bills, vendor payments, payment links, budgets and spend cards. The company launched its product in June 2021 after rebranding from Swipe and was founded in 2020 by CEO Jesse Ghansah and Barima Effah. In its first seven months live Float onboarded hundreds of businesses across retail, manufacturing, fintech, e‑commerce, media and health, and has delivered $10M in credit spend and cash advances; its payment transaction volume is in the eight figures and grew 26x. The seed funding will be used to expand geographically (plans to set up entities in Kenya and South Africa by Q2 pending licenses), improve its cash‑management platform and launch credit products tailored to specific verticals. Float positions itself as a "financial operating system" for African SMBs by combining readily available, flexible working capital with integrated software services.

Led · Series A · Jan 2022

Lipa Later is a Kenyan fintech that offers consumer financing solutions. The company completed a KES 500 million (US$5 million) privately placed debt issuance. It plans to raise an additional KES 2 billion (US$20 million) in equity and debt to fund expansion in Kenya. Lipa Later is also crowdfunding roughly $1.2 million in exchange for equity at a reported valuation of $30,000,000; the article also references an ongoing ~ $1.34 million crowdfund on Republic. The five-year-old company previously raised about $25 million in equity and debt from investors including Founders Factory Africa Platform Capital and others. CEO Eric Muli said the new funding will enable infrastructure enhancements to make the company’s financing solutions more accessible, and the firm remains optimistic despite weakened VC appetite for growth and late-stage startups. Lipa Later operates a tech-driven BNPL platform that provides consumers with near-instant credit limits using proprietary credit-scoring and machine-learning systems. The company offers a BNPL API that integrates with e-commerce platforms and enables merchants to accept installment payments. It has exclusive partnerships with retailers across its markets, including a regional partnership with Carrefour that charges about 2.3% monthly interest on extended credit. Founded in 2018 and active in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, Lipa Later plans to expand into Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria and to deepen its presence in existing markets. Management said it aims to grow and double its presence in current markets and open three to five new African markets in the next 12 months. The new funding will support product expansion, additional merchant partnerships, and geographic growth across Africa.