NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Branch, a Facebook-linked mobile phone lending app, has raised nearly $2M by issuing a commercial paper.

The Silicon Valley start-up will use the funds to grow its loan book.

Branch says it has disbursed 4 billion Kenyan shillings ($4M) via mobile money platform M-Pesa since its Kenya launch in April 2015.

Centum-owned Nabo Capital was the arranger of the debt facility – using Branch’s loan book as collateral.

The commercial paper was snapped up by high net-worth individuals and fund managers, the tech firm said.

“Demand for mobile loans is likely to increase as the caps are shrinking the supply of credit in many traditional avenues,” said Daniel Szlapak, director of Africa at Branch.

Photo courtesy of Neil Palmer (CIAT).