#69: FairMoney - How the credit-led neobank is providing consumer loans and financial services across Nigeria, India and other developing markets

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about FairMoney, the credit-led Neobank in emerging markets. we’ll explore the FairMoney story across the following areas

African lending & consumer credit

FairMoney's founding & early history

Product & monetization strategy

Competitive positioning & potential exit options

Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on Oct 1, 2023

Companies discussed: FairMoney, Branch, PalmPay, Kuda Bank, Carbon, 54Gene, GTBank, Access Bank, Ecobank, PalmPay, Carbon, PiggyVest, Upstart, Tala, Visa, Mastercard Safaricom (M-Pesa), PayForce & Chipper Cash

Business concepts discussed: Smartphone credit assessment, African customer segmentation strategy, Consumer lending, unbanked population, smartphone credit assessment, Neobank strategy & Personal Finance OS

Conversation highlights:

(03:01) - Intro

(07:19) - African consumer lending & neobank context

(18:35) - Neobanking context and background

(20:00) - FairMoney founding story and Founders’ background

(39:40) - Fundraising

(45:46) - Geographical expansion

(49:05) - Partnerships

(50:16) - Acquisitions

(55:42) - Team & Location strategy

(58:03) - User metrics and traction

(1:04:27) - Product and monetization strategy

(1:24:04) - Competition and options for exit

(1:35:44) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:47:30) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:55:17) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at [email protected]. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at [email protected]

Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

Recommendation 1: Arnold Schwarzenegger book 1: The Education of a Bodybuilder

Recommendation 2: Arnold Schwarzenegger book 2: Total Recall - My Unbelievably True Life Story

Recommendation 3: Richard Feynman's book: What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character (Feynman Book 2). I already read and recommended "Surely, you're joking Mr Feynman which was extraordinary)

Recommendation 4: Finnaus YT channel tells stories about financial companies and investors. Awesome. I watched the history of JP Morgan, Howard Marks, Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Vanguard and on and on. I must have spent over 10 hours in the past week on it

Small win: Hanging out in Rio de Janeiro. It was fun!

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Zealot by Reza Aslan, Remember Me - Fireboy (FAEM remix) & Lonely At The Top - Asake (FAEM Remix)

Small win: Exercising after recovering from an injury

Other content: Laurin Hainy on TechPoint Africa, We Rich People Will Not Tell You How We Make Our Money - IG Reel, Moneylender licensing in Nigeria , Examples of spurious correlations & Titan: A Golden Case in Indian Retail

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email [email protected] with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at [email protected]

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at [email protected]

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