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

1. African lending & consumer credit

   
   



2. FairMoney's founding & early history

   
   



3. Product & monetization strategy

   
   



4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

   
   



5. 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 olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  
  



• 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 info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

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