This week’s version of Finovate World appears at current fintech headlines from Nigeria and South Africa.
BAS Group acquired a majority stake in Nigeria’s Zuvy
Nigeria-based diversified monetary companies group BAS Group introduced this week that it has acquired a minority stake in Zuvy, a neighborhood fintech that focuses on bill financing. The transfer offers BAS Group greater than 50% of the corporate, a stake that analysts estimate might be valued between $1.5 million and $3 million. The transaction can even place BAS Group Chief Working Officer, Adnan Kayode, on the helm of Zuvy—though the agency will proceed to function independently.
“This acquisition of Zuvy goes past merely increasing our funding portfolio—it represents a strategic alignment with our core mission of growing a complete, technology-enabled monetary ecosystem for Africa,” BAS Group Founder and CEO Abdulateef Hussein mentioned.
Co-founded in 2023 by Angel Onuoha and Ahmed Shehu, Zuvy offers bill financing to companies within the FMCG (“fast-moving shopper items”) and healthcare sectors, in addition to to firms in provide chain industries. Zuvy experiences financing invoices value greater than ₦1 billion ($650,000) for 1,500 small companies over the previous two years. As a part of the deal, Onuoha and Shehu will retain minority stakes within the firm, however will now not have operational roles. The 2 founders have moved on to deal with their new healthcare enterprise, Avelis Well being.
“We take nice delight in Zuvy’s accomplishments and the constructive impression we’ve created for 1000’s of Nigerian enterprises,” Onuoha mentioned. “BAS Group represents the proper accomplice to advance Zuvy’s development trajectory whereas we focus our efforts on addressing crucial healthcare challenges within the American market.”
BAS Group’s deal for Zuvy comes after the agency launched a lending enterprise that gives collateralized loans to small and medium-sized companies. The bulk stake in Zuvy will allow BAS Group so as to add uncollateralized lending to its providing.
South African fintech Lesaka acquired Financial institution Zero
Lesaka Applied sciences reported that its subsidiary, Lesaka Applied sciences Proprietary Ltd, has agreed to amass Financial institution Zero Mutual Financial institution (Financial institution Zero). Topic to customary closing circumstances, the acquisition will likely be settled through a mix of recent share issuance and as much as ZAR 91 million ($5.1 million) in money. The whole worth of the transaction is estimated to be $61 million.
“The acquisition of Financial institution Zero is a transformative occasion in Lesaka’s journey, enabling us to raised serve our shoppers, retailers, and enterprise shoppers by embedding a trusted, well-engineered neobank functionality into our fintech platform,” Lesaka Chairman Ali Mazanderani mentioned. “I’m delighted to welcome the Financial institution Zero staff to Lesaka as companions.”
Based in 2018 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, Financial institution Zero is a contemporary “app-only” financial institution for each people and companies. As of April 2025, the establishment had a deposit base of greater than ZAR 400 million ($22.4 million), and greater than 40,000 funded accounts throughout South Africa. Co-launched by Michael Jordaan (Chairman) and Yatin Narsai (CEO), Financial institution Zero boasts 45% black- and 20% female-ownership. Publish-acquisition, Jordaan will be part of the Lesaka Board of Administrators whereas Narsai continues to function CEO.
“Financial institution Zero was constructed from the bottom as much as ship a safe, digital-first banking expertise that places management again within the palms of consumers,” Narsai mentioned. “Our focus has all the time been on utilizing expertise to take away friction, decrease prices, and problem legacy banking norms. Becoming a member of forces with Lesaka permits us to speed up that mission at scale—reaching extra clients, quicker—whereas staying true to the rules that outline who we’re.”
TransUnion invests, companions with Omnisient
Talking of minority investments, TransUnion introduced that it has secured a minority funding in—and a strategic partnership with—South Africa-based fintech Omnisient. Omnisient gives an information collaboration and superior analytics platform that permits firms to securely entry high-value shopper knowledge ecosystems and combine various knowledge units to assist sensible decision-making.
The strategic partnership will improve TransUnion’s capacity to carry extra of the estimated 500 million un- and underbanked Africans into the formal monetary system. By leveraging various knowledge at scale, TransUnion’s partnership with Omnisient will allow extra new-to-credit and credit-underserved shoppers to start constructing a credit score profile and begin the journey towards higher, long-term monetary empowerment and alternative.
“Conventional knowledge fashions typically fail to mirror the lived realities of African shoppers, leaving hundreds of thousands with out entry to credit score and the alternatives it allows,” TransUnion Africa Regional President/CEO Lee Naik mentioned. “Monetary inclusion is central to unlocking financial development throughout the continent. That’s why we’re dedicated to main with daring, Africa-born options designed to see the unseen and serve the credit-invisible by integrating various datasets alongside conventional credit score knowledge in ways in which mirror uniquely African contexts and realities.”
Together with the funding (quantity undisclosed) and strategic partnership, a member of TransUnion will be part of Omnisient’s board of administrators.
TransUnion’s funding and strategic partnership comes at a time when demand is rising worldwide for entry to various knowledge and options that leverage this knowledge whereas guaranteeing privateness, enhancing belief, and creating worth for monetary establishments. Omnisient’s expertise makes use of tokenized keys to characterize private info within the knowledge set, avoiding the switch of uncooked knowledge and offering privateness all through the complete course of. The corporate’s many-to-many knowledge connectivity between banks and different monetary companies suppliers and third-parties helps promote innovation within the area of knowledge collaboration.
“Our privacy-preserving knowledge collaboration platform brings monetary companies and shopper manufacturers collectively, permitting them to find, validate, and commercialize new various sources of shopper behavioral and transactional knowledge with out having to alternate delicate private info,” Omnisient Co-Founder and Group CEO Jon Jacobson mentioned.
Based in 2019 in Cape City, South Africa, Omnisient is at present headquartered within the UK. TransUnion most not too long ago demoed its expertise at FinovateSpring 2024, exhibiting how its Enhanced BreachIQ resolution offers trendy, gamified shopper identification safety.
Right here is our have a look at fintech innovation all over the world.
Central and Southern Asia
Indian paytech Pine Labs introduced plans for an IPO and a purpose of a $6 billion valuation.
UnaFinancial and JSCB Microcreditbank partnered to launch a digital credit score service in Uzbekistan.
SEBI-registered On-line Bond Platform Supplier (OBPP) IndiaBonds.com raised $3.77 million in funding.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Open funds platform Belvo and digital financial institution Ualá teamed as much as launch new digital credit-scoring mannequin leveraging a large-scale integration of employment knowledge.
Paytech EBANX solid a partnership with Mexican BNPL fintech APLAZO.
Revolut introduced plans to amass Argentina-based lender Banco Cetelem from BNP Paribas.
Asia-Pacific
South Korean banks fashioned a consortium to situation a Gained-backed stablecoin.
New Zealand-based accounting platform Xero agreed to amass SMB invoice pay platform Melio.
Australian open banking platform supplier Frollo launched its Frollo for Brokers on-line portal for mortgage brokers.
Sub-Saharan Africa
TransUnion introduced a minority funding in and strategic accomplice with South African fintech Omnisient.
Monetary crime compliance firm ThetaRay partnered with Africa-based monetary companies agency I&M Group.
Kenya-based PesaLink inked a Memorandun of Understanding with Fintech Alliance to advance inclusive cost options.
Central and Jap Europe
Germany-based insurer Munich Re teamed up with Instnt to boost its ID fraud loss insurance coverage protection.
NaroIQ, a German digital platform that helps companies launch and handle ETFs and mutual funds, raised $6.5 million in seed funding.
Deutsche Financial institution turned to Silverflow for the launch of its European cloud-native funds platform.
Center East and Northern Africa
Israeli-based fintech Tipalti acquired AI-powered money move administration specialist Assertion.
Egyptian funds platform Octane secured $5.2 million in new funding.
Libya’s Central Financial institution launched the nation’s first digital cost discussion board in a bid to spur fintech modernization.
Picture by onaopemipo Rufus
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