FairMoney
“Can a smartphone-credit-scored microlender become Nigeria's full-stack credit-led neobank?”
Founded2017
HQLagos, Nigeria (also London, UK)
Total raised$90M+ disclosed
Latest roundSeries B, 2021
IndustryFintech / Neobank
The story
FairMoney started in 2017 as a Nigerian smartphone-based microlender using alternative data (phone metadata, geolocation) for credit scoring. Following the 2021 Tiger Global-led Series B, it pivoted to a credit-led neobank model (Nubank-style), layering current accounts, savings (FairSave, FairLock, FairTarget, FairDollar), POS acquiring, and business banking on top of its lending engine. It operates under its own Nigerian microfinance bank license (FairMoney MFB) rather than via a BaaS partner.
Product timeline
2017
Founded as a micro-credit mobile lending app in Nigeria· lending
2019
Raised $11M Series A to expand from micro-credit toward current accounts and savings· lending
2020
Launched in India to serve underbanked consumers· pivot
2021
Raised $42M Series B led by Tiger Global to expand into full neobank offering· banking
2025
Launched FlexiCredit on-demand credit line up to ₦5M for salaried Nigerians· lending
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by FairMoney
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in FairMoney’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
FairMoney POS (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
7 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.