Rivy
“Can a Nigerian SMB lender become the financial infrastructure layer for Africa's clean energy transition?”
Founded2019
HQLagos, Nigeria
Total raised$6.1M
Latest roundSeed (2021)
IndustryFintech / Lending
The story
Founded 2019 as Payhippo, a YC-backed AI-driven SMB lender in Nigeria. In 2025 the company rebranded to Rivy and repositioned as a climate-finance company, redirecting its lending engine toward clean energy — solar asset finance for homes and businesses, inventory finance for vendors, and microgrid finance for developers. Since the rebrand it has layered in EV financing (2026 Ecowaka partnership for electric three-wheelers) and a carbon-credit / energy-certificate product, effectively becoming a vertical clean-energy fintech rather than a horizontal SMB lender.
Product timeline
2019
Founded as Payhippo, an AI-driven SMB lending platform in Nigeria· lending
2020
Raised debt financing to scale SMB loan book· lending
2021
Closed $3.0M seed round; part of YC 2021 cohort· lending
2025
Rebranded from Payhippo to Rivy, pivoting to clean energy financing (solar asset, inventory, microgrid)· pivot
2026
Expanded lending into EV financing via Ecowaka partnership (electric three-wheelers)· lending
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Rivy
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Rivy’s embedded-finance stack
Lending
Rivy (in-house)Maritime Microfinance Bank (in-house / parent)Solar Asset Financing (homes & businesses)Inventory Financing (solar vendors)Microgrid Financing (developers)EV Financing (electric three-wheelers, via Ecowaka)Energy Certificates (carbon credit monetization)
Sponsor bank
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.