GFA Spotlight: Trade Lenda (GetFundedAfrica May/June Fundraising Cohort Edition)

About the Founder(s)

Adeshina Adewumi, Shina Arogundade, and Oluwatosin Ayodele are three co-founders of Trade Lenda, a fintech company offering timely access to finance for MSMEs within the supply value chain across emerging markets. Adeshina Adewumi is the CEO discovered the huge opportunity from a Startup he Co-founded: One Kiosk, an online retail platform leveraging technology to connect small and medium-scale retailers, supermarkets and farmers to customers. Shina Arogundade serves as Trade Lenda’s COO bringing his wealth of experience from United Bank Africa Group where he served as a Credit Analyst participating in credit policy development and implementation across 20 African countries while Oluwatosin Ayodele is the CTO; a previously award winning Software Engineer who has received various local recognition for his use of technology to improve the lives of people within his immediate community.

The trio of Trade Lenda bring a combined background and professional experience in credit analysis and policies, accounting, customer service, software development, entrepreneurship and funds management to the fintech. All of these they attained before setting up the fintech company.

For Adeshina, the maxim – The future is for those who take action today – acts as his motto and goes hand in glove with his unique trait of “getting a yes, no matter how long it takes.” In addition, he is driven by his commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, especially goals one (no poverty), eight (decent work & economic growth), and nine (industry, innovation & infrastructure).

When he is not consumed by Trade Lenda’s operations, he likes to spend quality time with family, both indoors and out.

For Shina, the maxim- True joy is in helping others succeed- acts as his motto the future is for those who take action today. His passion is devoted to using his experience to empower women and youths who can in turn support their homes rise above poverty.

Tosin, the maxim- Change starts with you- acts as his motto the change we all desires lies in the slightest tiny efforts we intentionally make today and daily which in turn shapes the future. His passion is devoted to using his skills to roll our innovations capable of making life better for people. He has thus being recognised at State and Federal government level of Nigeria for using technology to improve his immediate community in Ilesha Osun State. Also a previous winner of the Kickstart Award by International Breweries Season 3.

About Trade Lenda

Two things led the co-founders to the development of Trade Lenda, according to Adeshina. The first was growing up with hard-working mothers engaged in retail trading to support the family income; the second was working in banks and offering solutions supporting businesses with online presence. Their engagement and backgrounds within and outside the financial space made them understand the huge trade financing gap and the opportunity it presented through support of viable MSMEs in the region.

With its technology and model, Trade Lenda is facilitating access to finance for trade across FMCGs, agriculture, oil & gas, and other key economic drivers of the regions in which it operates.

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To date, this fintech has six staff members, disbursed amounts to the tune of $1.6 M to over 230,000 MSMEs, and boasts of 12 strategic partnerships with more than $50, 000 in revenue. It has achieved these feats despite initial challenges around creating supply pipelines and coming up against formidable competitors – Flutterwave and Payhippo. Nonetheless, it prides itself on the fact that it is creating a strong leveraging niche.

In the future, Trade Lenda aims to quickly scale into the African regions and is currently looking at Ghana and Kenya among others. Come five years’ time, Adesina intends for the company to have presence in at least 10 African regions, with Trade Lenda regarded as the finance plug for trade and commerce across emerging markets

He would like the company to be synonymous with impact, innovation and growth of the people, communities and economies within which it operates; a perfect correlation to the SDGs on which he is focused.