Aella
“Can Aella become Nigeria's default banking and credit-infrastructure layer for SMBs and underbanked consumers by combining an MFB license with open developer APIs?”
Founded2015
HQLagos, Nigeria
FoundersAkin Jones, Akanbi Wale
Total raised$10.3M
Latest roundDebt financing, 2020
IndustryFintech / SMB banking
The story
Founded in 2015 as a pure digital lender (Aella Credit) targeting underbanked consumers in Nigeria and the Philippines. Over time pivoted toward becoming a full-stack regulated microfinance bank, obtaining a CBN MFB license under Aella Microfinance Bank Limited. This allowed Aella to offer deposit accounts, savings, payments, and business banking alongside credit. Most recently, expanded into a B2B direction by launching Fintech-as-a-Service APIs (wallets, KYC, payments rails) for third-party developers and SMBs across Africa.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
2015
Founded in Lagos, Nigeria by Akin Jones and Akanbi Wale with a focus on digital lending for emerging markets.· lending
2020
Raised $10M debt financing from HQ Financial Group to expand micro-lending across West Africa.· lending
2022
Obtained CBN Microfinance Bank license, transitioning from a lending app to a regulated MFB offering savings, payments, and loans.· banking
2024
Launched Aella Business Tools portal offering payroll, expense management, invoicing, and APIs (Fintech-as-a-Service) for SMBs.· banking
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Aella
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Aella’s embedded-finance stack
Banking / BaaS
Aella Microfinance Bank Limited (in-house)
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
4 more providers across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.