January 14, 2022, marked a significant milestone for Lipa Later, a Kenyan-based buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company, as it secured $12 million in funding from a consortium of investors.
The funding, a mix of equity and debt, will enable Lipa Later to expand its operations within its current markets, including Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, while also entering new markets such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania.
Founded in 2018, Lipa Later has built a reputation for delivering value to its customers, and its recent funding round attracted backing from prominent investors, including Cauris Finance, Lateral Frontiers Ventures, GreenHouse Capital, SOSV IV LLC, Sayani Investments, and Axian Financial Services.
Speaking about the investment, Samakab Hashi, Partner at Lateral Frontier Ventures, stated, “Over the last few years, we have watched Eric Muli, CEO of Lipa Later, and his team put together the building blocks for Pan-African expansion, and this round of funding takes Lipa Later one step closer to being the dominant Buy-Now-Pay-Later player on the Continent.”
Lipa Later has successfully tapped into the rapidly growing online presence across Africa, developing a unique Buy Now Pay Later option API that integrates into e-commerce platforms, enabling merchants to sell products directly to consumers and pay for them in affordable monthly installments.
The company’s proprietary scoring and machine learning system enables consumers to sign up and receive a credit limit in seconds, without the need for bulky documentation and a lengthy credit approval process.
“With formal credit available to only a tiny minority in Lipa Later’s target markets, we are excited to be supporting Lipa Later and its unique capabilities in bolstering consumer credit in the region,” said Azer Songnaba, the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Cauris.
Ruby Nimkar, Partner at GreenHouse Capital, added, “Lipa Later is not only changing the consumer credit landscape across Africa, which to date has been largely inaccessible for most, but also catalysing the future of shopping, e-commerce, and payments.”
Eric Muli, the Co-Founder and CEO of Lipa Later, expressed his gratitude to the new investors, stating, “We are excited to be working with our investors as we look to grow and expand to more markets in Africa. In the next 12 months, we are looking to grow and double our presence in the existing markets, even as we open in three to five new markets in Africa.”
