ACQUISITION | Nigerian Fintech, Carbon, Acquires Vella Finance and Launches AI-Powered SME Banking Platform

Carbon, a Nigerian lending platform, has announced the completion of its acquisition of fintech startup, Vella Finance.

In a blog post, Carbon said this marks a significant leap forward in its mission to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with advanced, accessible financial services that leverage the latest in artificial intelligence.

“Carbon spearheaded the consumer finance revolution in Nigeria in 2016. Our goal was to give consumers unprecedented access to finance from their mobile devices,” said Chijioke Dozie, Co-Founder of Carbon.

“Since then, we have provided some loans to SMEs but not in a manner that meets our standards or the customers’ expectations. We have known the Vella Finance team for some time and admired their innovation and understanding of the market needs. We saw in them the same innovative and pioneering spirit that ignited Carbon. They had built an SME platform that we believe is unrivaled in the market and given our aspirations, the deal was a no-brainer.”

In the coming days, Vella Finance, which last October [2023], as reported by BitKE, terminated its crypto services to focus on SME banking, will transition business customers to Carbon Business and offer individual customers the option to upgrade to business accounts, the company said.

For the business owners, Carbon Business will provide:

• AI-Powered Transaction Analysis: Utilize advanced AI to gain deep insights into your financial transactions, enabling smarter decision-making and growth strategies.
• Competitive Low-Interest Loans: Access loans with interest rates that challenge industry standards, offering financial relief and support for your business aspirations.
• Sub-Accounts for Financial Organization: Easily manage your finances with sub-accounts that simplify reconciliation and accounting processes. You can create accounts for salaries, savings, working capital, and many more.
• Automated Income Splitting for Financial Planning: Set rules to allocate a % of funds to go into separate sub-accounts in an automated manner. You can rest easy knowing that your VAT, WHT, or savings for a new purchase is taking place every second of the day.
• Team-Based Account Management (in development): Invite team members to collaborate on account management, fostering teamwork and efficiency in financial operations.
• Ease of Integration and User-Friendly Interface: Seamlessly integrate the account into your existing business systems, ensuring a smooth transition and adoption.

“This is exciting news for businesses and we are thrilled to join forces with Carbon,” said Mark Afolabi, Co-Founder and CEO of Vella Finance.

“These are trying times for businesses in Nigeria and by joining forces, we can provide businesses a platform that provides AI driven insights into their transactions, low-cost accessible loans, and the power of A.I models built into the platform to help with any business challenge.”