TechPression

Tag: SME banking

  • Carbon acquires Vella finance, to launch AI-powered SME banking

    Carbon acquires Vella finance, to launch AI-powered SME banking

    Carbon, a leading digital financial services provider, has finalised the acquisition of Vella Finance, a Nigerian fintech specialising in SME-focused solutions. 

    The acquisition, announced through a joint statement, also marks the launch of an innovative AI-powered business banking platform.

    Read also: Vella Finance to discontinue crypto trading and focus on SME banking

    Carbon empowers SMEs with AI Financial Services

    The acquisition of Vella Finance, facilitated through its parent company One Credit Limited, signifies Carbon’s strategic move to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with advanced financial services leveraging artificial intelligence. Gabriel Ajenifuja, co-founder and CTO of Vella Finance, stated that the company would transition its business customers to Carbon Business and offer individual customers the option to upgrade to business accounts.

    Co-founder of Carbon, Chijioke Dozie, highlighted the significance of the acquisition, stating, “Carbon spearheaded the consumer finance revolution in Nigeria in 2016…We saw in them the same innovative and pioneering spirit that ignited Carbon.” This deal enables Carbon to enhance its SME loan offerings, meeting both its standards and customers’ expectations.

    Commitment to AI Innovation

    Ngozi Dozie, co-founder and CEO of Carbon, emphasized the company’s commitment to leveraging AI not only internally but also sharing these insights broadly. The acquisition of Vella Finance aligns with Carbon’s vision to revolutionize financial services in Nigeria by integrating advanced technology into its offerings.

    Mark Afolabi, Vella Finance’s co-founder and CEO, expressed excitement about the acquisition, stating, “These are trying times for businesses in Nigeria…we can provide businesses with a platform that provides AI-driven insights into their transactions, low-cost accessible loans, and the power of AI models built into the platform to help with any business challenge.”

    Despite the ownership change, Vella Finance reassured its customers of its unwavering commitment to providing innovative financial products and a secure banking experience. The acquisition will enable Vella Finance to expand its reach and develop cutting-edge financial solutions.

    Leveraging AI Transaction Analysis

    Carbon intends to leverage Vella Finance’s AI-powered transaction analysis to provide actionable insights to its business customers. This strategic move is expected to enhance Carbon’s financial services and solidify its position as a leader in the fintech industry.

    Carbon’s acquisition of Vella Finance signifies a significant development in Nigeria’s fintech landscape. It underscores the importance of AI in transforming financial services and demonstrates Carbon’s commitment to providing innovative solutions to SMEs.

  • Vella Finance to discontinue crypto trading and focus on SME banking

    Vella Finance to discontinue crypto trading and focus on SME banking

    Vella Finance, a fintech company located in Lagos, has decided to discontinue its crypto-based products in order to concentrate on providing services to small and medium-sized businesses. 

    The financial technology company sent out an email to its customers and subscribers on Monday, October 23, to inform them that they will be discontinuing all of their crypto-based services on the following Monday, October 30.

    Vella was established in 2021 with the goals of facilitating crypto-spending in Africa and providing the infrastructure necessary for companies to collect payments on a global scale. The financial technology company will stop all crypto-based operations, including trading, deposits and wallets, fiat and crypto swaps, and crypto, in order to concentrate on offering end-to-end business solutions for small and medium enterprises in Africa. This will be done despite the fact that the company already offers products that serve small businesses.

    Read also: AI FinanceGPT to Simplify financial analysis in SA local languages

    Remarks from the co-founder of Vella

     According to Tolu Adedayo, co-founder o of Vella, the primary reason for the conclusion is judgements made regarding business. 

    “We’re going fully into SME Banking. Banking requires playing in regulatory confines. We already serve businesses from the onset backed by user and transactional data. It just makes sense to offer an end-to-end banking system to serve them better. It’s a business decision; there’s no way we will run banking and crypto together,” he said.

    Launch by Vella is one of the most notable items that Vella offers. It is a service that, for the price of N18,000 (about $14), enables small enterprises to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission. According to Adedayo, another factor that played a role in the decision to move was a desire to cater to the requirements of SMEs. 

    According to Adebayo, “A good number of the SMEs driving Nigeria’s GDP are informal and are financially underserved. What we do at Vella is help them formalise via Launch by Vella, give them instant business bank accounts, and provide them with payment infrastructure to enable payment collections locally on their websites/online stores. Vella also allows them to create invoices and payment links for free.”

    Alongside these existing features, the fintech will launch new features in its new business model to cater to these needs. 

    “We will be announcing new features in the coming weeks that solidify our full entrance into the business banking space,” he added. 

    Nigerian startup, Vella, provides international money transfers without stress

    About Vella Finance

    Vella is an all-in-one financial operating system that every African business needs to grow.

    It’s easy for businesses to keep track of their cash, spend it, and treasury because they use on and off-ramps to provide tools for collecting money, paying out money, and managing income locally and across borders.

    They give small business owners a simple but powerful system that makes digital banking easier, speeds up growth, and raises their profits through web and mobile apps.

    Fintech is the new, quick, and simple way to give and receive money, buy data and airtime, add friends, pay bills, and do business.

    Mark Afolabi helped to start Vella Finance and is now its CEO. He worked as a managing consultant at Ingress Africa.