Fintech company C-One Ventures buys Bankly of Nigeria to broaden its financial technology collection.
C-One Ventures, a leading player in Nigeria's fintech sector, has announced the acquisition of four fintech companies - Bankly, Fulcrum, GetPayed, and gomoney. This strategic move underscores C-One Ventures' growing ambition to build an interconnected suite of financial tools focused on small businesses and underserved individuals across Nigeria.
Founded in 2018, Bankly, a licensed microfinance bank, has made significant strides in digitising informal savings methods like ajo and esusu, serving over 2 million customers and maintaining a nationwide agent network exceeding 50,000. The acquisition enables C-One Ventures to build upon Bankly’s existing footprint, expanding digital financial services within Nigeria’s vast informal sector.
Tomilola Majekodunmi, co-founder and outgoing CEO of Bankly, expressed confidence that the acquisition will keep the Bankly vision alive and further advance the mission of empowering more Nigerians through inclusive financial solutions. Majekodunmi will support the transition in an advisory role.
Bankly's services, which include digital savings, payments, and access to credit, will be merged into C-One Ventures' broader fintech ecosystem. As Bankly undergoes restructuring to integrate into the C-One ecosystem, it is expected to strengthen access to microfinance and fintech services for millions in Nigeria’s informal economy.
The acquisition reflects a broader trend in Nigeria’s fintech sector aimed at boosting the digital economy and tackling financial exclusion through innovative, technology-driven solutions. The move will expand C-One Ventures' fintech portfolio, which already includes other companies in the sector.
Fulcrum, a supply chain finance platform, GetPayed, a business banking and payments app, and gomoney, a modern digital bank, are the other three fintech companies acquired by C-One Ventures. These acquisitions will further deepen C-One Ventures' reach into Nigeria's informal economy, key to expanding financial access.
The strategic aim of C-One Ventures in acquiring Bankly is to advance and scale Bankly’s mission of providing accessible, inclusive financial solutions that deepen financial inclusion across Nigeria’s informal economy and underserved population. This acquisition underscores C-One Ventures' commitment to bridging critical gaps in the financial ecosystem, such as the high percentage of adult Africans without formal bank accounts.
In summary, C-One Ventures’ strategic acquisition of Bankly and other fintech companies is designed to accelerate financial inclusion across Nigeria by expanding and deepening Bankly’s fintech capabilities, enabling wider access to essential financial services for millions of Nigerians outside the traditional banking system.
- This acquisition of Bankly, a licensed microfinance bank, by C-One Ventures marks a significant step in their strategic goal of investing in technology-driven financial solutions to strengthen business operations and improve access to financial services, particularly for individuals in the informal sector of Nigeria.
- With the fusion of Bankly's services into C-One Ventures' broader fintech ecosystem, C-One Ventures will further grow its fintech portfolio and Technology-led business initiatives, thereby enhancing its ambition to become a comprehensive hub for digital financial tools, ultimately bridging the financial gaps in Nigeria and beyond.
