“Can a Nigerian SMB lender become the financial infrastructure layer for Africa's clean energy transition?”
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.
Rivy discloses Maritime Microfinance Bank (parent) as its sponsor bank, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Rivy does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Maritime Microfinance Bank (parent).
Rivy's lending and capital products are provided by Rivy (in-house) and Maritime Microfinance Bank (in-house / parent).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in Rivy's stack: Lending (Rivy (in-house), Maritime Microfinance Bank (in-house / parent), Solar Asset Financing (homes & businesses), Inventory Financing (solar vendors) and 3 others); Sponsor bank (Maritime Microfinance Bank (parent)).
Rivy is founded in 2019 and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Rivy has raised $6.1M in total (latest round: Seed (2021)).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Rivy and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.