[Transcript] #70: Carbon - How the credit-led neobank is providing loans, BNPL and financial services across Nigeria and Africa
Transcript for podcast originally recorded in October 2023
😉 In October 2023, we explored the story of Carbon, the African credit-led Neobank. Carbon was founded by by Chijioke and Ngozi Dozie and started life as Paylater, offering instant loans, and quickly grew into one of Nigeria's top digital financial services providers. The platform uses data to provide quick credit, with minimal hassle, through an easy-to-use mobile app. Carbon focuses on serving people and small businesses that traditional banks often overlook. Their goal is to make financial services accessible to everyone across Africa.
I really enjoyed this episode! We kicked off the Carbon story by going back to 1929 to share a brief story about Pascal Dozie, the father of Chijioke and Ngozi, before diving into the main narrative. Fun!
Companies discussed: Carbon (PayLater, One Credit, OneFi, One Finance), Diamond Bank, Cafe Neo, Kaizen Venture Partners, FairMoney, Branch, Paga, Kuda Bank, GTBank, Access Bank, Chipper Cash, NuBank, Lesaka (NET1 UEPS), Lendable, Interswitch, Visa, RenMoney, Tala & Safaricom (M-Pesa)
Business concepts discussed: Smartphone credit assessment, consumer lending, unbanked population, Neobank strategy, Personal Finance OS & Buy Now Pay Later
Olumide Ogunsanwo
Personal: Website
Afrobility Podcast: Stories and analyses of African technology companies (Website, Listen: Apple podcasts, Spotify & Google podcasts & Read: Substack Newsletter)
Adamantium Fund: African B2B fund focused on education, health, finance, food and transportation (Website & memo)
Firedom Book: Financial Independence stories of African Immigrants (Website, Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)
Transcript starts here
[00:00:00] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Today, we're going to talk about Carbon, the credit-led neobank. We'll explore the Carbon story across the following five areas. 1) African lending consumer credit, 2) Carbon's founding and early history, 3) Product & monetization strategy, 4) Competitive positioning & Potential exit options and 5) Overall outlook. This episode was recorded on October 15th, 2023.
Carbon! I'm excited!
[00:00:44] Bankole Makanju: This is one of the OG FinTechs. Probably the only one more OG than this is Paga.
[00:00:49] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Carbon, aka PayLater. Previously called OneCredit. Also known as OneFi. Used to be under the name, OneFinance. Many different names, but Carbon is the name we're going for. “Credit-led neobank”. Sounds familiar!
[00:01:01] Bankole Makanju: With operations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. I love what they put on their website, which is that we are a bank and our superpower is giving you credit. And I'm like, I fuck with that. I thought it's just, this, this, this just call is giving you, giving you money, which is what I really like.
[00:01:16] Olumide Ogunsanwo: I really like that. Corporate speak. It's a credit-led digital bank offering modern banking services to ambitious, youthful, unrelenting Africans looking for value and control over their finances not complete horseshit, but like there's youthfulness there if you're old, they don't want you as customers.
If you're older than 50, go to Access Bank.