SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yabx, a company incubated by Comviva and part of the Mahindra Group, to address a deep-rooted need for responsible consumer finance in Africa.
Africa has over 700 million mobile wallets, and about 450 million bank accounts but access to formal credit remains severely constrained due to poor credit infrastructure and the slowly evolving risk appetite of financial services players, mainly traditional banks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitization in the financial sector and created a fertile environment for new and disruptive products to be taken to the market. The partnership between SC Ventures and Yabx is leveraging on this to create unique, Africa-specific products that will increase access to credit to the underbanked across Africa.
Nimble future-ready technology and data analytics combined with a deep understanding of banking will reduce the cost of delivery of innovative credit products, thereby widening inclusion across underserved segments in Africa where it is needed most.
Given the scale and the complexity of the opportunity, SC Ventures and Yabx have taken a collaborative approach to jointly address the challenge. Loans will be provided to customers for specific purposes like education and skill development using an innovative data-driven scoring and analytics engine that has been built with rich experience from African markets. These loan products will be initially launched in Uganda and then expanded to other African countries.
Jiten Arora, a Member of SC Ventures said, “We are excited at the prospect of using a data-driven, technology-enabled partnership model to serve the underbanked through purpose-driven loans in Africa, a continent for which we have a deep understanding and a strong commitment towards.”
Manoranjan Mohapatra, Chief Executive Officer at Comviva, commented, “Yabx has seen exponential growth over the past year, and we will continue to invest in its mission to serve millions of consumers and MSMEs in emerging markets who have limited traditional sources of funding available to them.”
Rajat Dayal, CEO at Yabx, said, “We have a lot of synergy with SC Ventures in Africa and we are uniquely positioned to create a seamless embedded finance experience. This partnership further bridges the gaps in the current market, driving digital innovations and bringing significant benefits to the underserved population of Africa.
