Lenco (YC W22)
“Can a pan-African neobank become the default operating account and expense platform for the continent's 50 million SMEs?”
Founded2021
HQLagos, Nigeria
FoundersAndrew Airelobhegbe, Impact Airelobhegbe, Godstime Asine, Praise Osagie
Total raised$2.1M
Latest roundSeed, 2022
IndustryFintech / SMB banking
The story
Lenco was founded in 2021 as a Nigeria-based digital business bank for African SMEs, initially focused on free current accounts and expense management for retail, hospitality, logistics, and startup businesses. It operates as a CBN-licensed Payment Solutions Service Provider with banking services delivered through partner banks (Providus Bank and URE Microfinance Bank). The company is pursuing a pan-African expansion strategy — Nigeria, Zambia (as Lenco by BroadPay), Malawi, with Kenya and Rwanda next — layering cards, cross-border payouts, and an API for developer integrations.
Product timeline
2021
Founded in Lagos to provide business current accounts for African SMEs.· banking
2022
Joined Y Combinator W22 batch; raised $2M seed.· banking
2023
Launched corporate expense cards (direct and prepaid).· card
2024
Expanded operations to Zambia (as Lenco by BroadPay) and Malawi; launched Lenco API for developers.· banking
2025
Expansion to Kenya and Rwanda underway.· banking
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Lenco (YC W22)
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Lenco (YC W22)’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Lenco Pay (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
4 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.