Flow Global Raises Funds to Quickly Expand and Scale Within and Across Markets
Flow Global, a financial technology startup offering unique digital growth capital solutions to small retail merchants in Uganda and Rwanda, has successfully raised bridge funding from two investors based in Europe and Asia.
The first funding was obtained in November 2022, and the most recent in March 2023. As it continues to expand and scale rapidly within and across markets, this funding puts Flow Global on track to achieve global profitability by mid-2023.
Flow Global is a market leader in providing growth financing solutions to Mobile Money Merchants in the form of digital or e-money float advances, and it is rapidly expanding to meet this market demand. Flow’s target customers are merchants who provide mobile money and agency banking services but lack the digital working capital (e-money float) needed to meet rising customer demand.
Flow’s energy major markets (Uganda and Rwanda) have approximately 403 000 mobile money merchants (a number that is growing) serving over 50 million users, with the latter figure increasing to over 605 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, Flow’s regional expansion focus.
Flow provides merchants with customized digital loans based on analytics of transactional-level data, and the impact is transformational, with 69% of merchants seeing an increase in revenue within the first month and growing by 40% over 6 months on average.
The innovative Fintech firm is the only float lender that is designed to be ecosystem agnostic, allowing merchants on multiple mobile money ecosystems to obtain float advances. Furthermore, it delivers its tailored financing solutions in a unique way by combining the use of its own proprietary cutting-edge technology called the Flow Liquidity Engine (“FLE”) with a targeted “human touch,” reflecting the company’s incorporation of microfinance lessons into an all-encompassing Fintech operation.
The FLE is the heart of Flow’s operations, performing client data analytics, KYC checks, credit scoring and decisioning, risk management, float advance management, portfolio analytics, and digital field force management.
The “human touch” component entails face-to-face interactions with clients in order to establish the highest level of KYC in what is still a (semi-)informal market and to build sticky client relationships based on trust and real-time understanding of customer needs.
The recent capital raise by Flow will help to expand its float advance book and sustain pipeline conversion. Another investor has since provided the fintech with a substantial term sheet in convertible debt. Verdant Capital arranged this successful transaction, cementing its position as a leading advisor and manager for Inclusive Financial Institutions in Africa.
