Carbon
“Can a credit-led African microfinance bank become the embedded banking and lending infrastructure for Nigerian platforms?”
Founded2012
HQLagos, Nigeria
FoundersChijioke Dozie, Ngozi Dozie
IndustryFintech / Neobank
The story
Founded as Paylater, a pure digital lending app, Carbon pivoted in 2019 into a full credit-led digital bank for Nigerian and Ghanaian consumers, adding payments, savings, cards and BNPL ('Carbon Zero'). It then acquired a Nigerian microfinance banking license (Carbon Microfinance Bank Limited) and began moving downstream into infrastructure — launching the Carbon Partner API for embedded merchant financing and a Carbon Business BaaS API exposing virtual accounts and payouts to other Nigerian platforms. The strategic shift is from B2C neobank to B2B2C embedded finance provider in West Africa.
Last 12 months
—
Product timeline
2012
Founded as Paylater, a digital lending app in Nigeria· lending
2019
Rebranded to Carbon, expanded into payments, savings and full digital banking· pivot
2020
Expanded into Ghana via Carbon Micro Credit Company Limited· banking
2022
Operating as Carbon Microfinance Bank Limited, CBN-licensed with NDIC-insured deposits· banking
2024
Launched Carbon Partner API for embedded merchant financing· lending
2025
Launched Carbon Business BaaS API (virtual accounts, payouts, sub-accounts)· banking
Regulated entities
2
regulatory licences held by Carbon
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
4 layers disclosed in Carbon’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Carbon Payments (self-operated)Carbon virtual collection accounts (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
7 more providers across 3 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.