WHY WE INVESTED IN PAYHIPPO

WHY WE INVESTED IN PAYHIPPO

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2019 competitiveness report, Nigeria ranks 129th in the world when it comes to access to credit for the private sector.

In a country of 200m, with nearly half of that population living in extreme poverty, this is a massive problem.

If businesses are unable to access finance, then they lack the fuel that they need to grow.   

Figure 1: Nigeria’s Domestic Credit to Private Sector % GDP

Source: World Economic Forum
 
If businesses can’t grow, they are unable to employ people or pay large amounts of taxes that fund social services that the government is responsible for providing.
 
With high unemployment, low government income, and underfunded, struggling businesses, it is difficult for the economy to grow and lift people out of poverty.
 
PayHippo to the rescue!
 
PayHippo gives fast convenient loans to small businesses ensuring that they can access the working capital they need to grow their businesses. Better still, these businesses can receive access to these loans in as little as 3 hours.
 
Easy, convenient access to credit means businesses not just in Nigeria, but across Africa can obtain loans, become more profitable, employ more people, pay more taxes, and lift more people out of poverty. A win for the country, a win for the people, a win for the businesses, and a win for the economy.
 
We first encountered PayHippo when we found out about the great work they were doing in healthcare, lending to providers like hospitals to ensure they had adequate amounts of working capital.
 
About the Founders
 
There are three awesome founders on this team. The PayHippo founders are innovators and builders who have domain expertise in the lending space and their profiles are below:

Zach Bijesse is the CEO and Co-Founder of PayHippo. Zach worked at Lidya, a venture-backed digital SME lender in Nigeria. Before working in Nigeria, he was an award-winning math and science teacher in Manhattan.

Chioma Ruky Okotcha is a Co-Founder and COO at PayHippo. Chioma Is a graduate of MPA from Science Po, France. She began her career in 2007 as an IT Advisory intern with KPMG. Between 2014 & 2015, she worked with Tony Elumelu Foundation, AFD, & OECD – OCED. In 2017, she joined Teach for Africa as operations and programs lead until she left in 2019 as the head of development and partnerships. Between 2019 and now, she has worked with the University of Oxford, Tony Blair Institute of Global Change. In August 2019, she left TBIGC to co-found Payhippo with 2 other people.

Uche Nnadi is the Co-Founder and CTO at PayHippo. He was a full-stack engineer at consumer lending fintech Earnest. Uche was previously CTO at SeatJoy in the Bay Area before becoming Payhippo’s CTO. He has spent the previous 5+ years managing Nigerian engineers. Uche enjoys building bridges that connect the passionate have nots with those that are willing to give opportunities.

We are excited to see how PayHippo is powering the future of trade finance in Africa and looking forward to the impact this business will have, creating prosperity across the continent.

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