Nigeria’s leading digital lending platform, Paylater has expanded its services by becoming a full-service digital financial platform. In line with this transition, the company has introduced a range of products which go beyond banking.

Since its inception in March 2016 when it first introduced instant loans with no collateral, Paylater has based its services on consumer lending. Driven by the response, and potential market of the underserved ready-market, the company then added new services to make transacting cheaper and completely seamless. Services such as bill payments, airtime purchases, free credit reports, investments, personal finance management, and Wallet were added to the platform.

In order to identify with, and represent the true reflection of the company’s business expansion, Paylater is now known as Carbon.

“Re-launching as “Carbon”, the rebrand reflects the company’s deliberate transition to a fully-fledged digital financial services platform that now offers bill payments, fund transfers, and savings products, in addition to loans,” said Paylater through a statement.

“Any review of our old brand would conclude that the name “Paylater” was no longer a true reflection of who we are and our promise to customers going forward. We are so much more and over the last few months, we have been working on a new brand that is more reflective of our aspirations.”

This transition comes shortly after the company secured a $5 million investment from Kenyan-based technology-enabled funding provider, Lendable. A careful look at the company’s journey so far shows consistent growth and strategic moves with relatable impact on consumers’ financial needs. Another record for Carbon is that it recently acquired payments company Amplify, and, was the first African FinTech platform to secure Credit ratings in 2018.

More recently, Carbon launched Bloom, a support system for female business owners. The company is also looking to move into providing health insurance for its customers as it looks to lessen the burdens Nigerians currently face in accessing and paying for it. In the near future, Carbon will also be launching its very own virtual Visa card for customers to handle transactions. With these life-changing innovative products, Carbon hopes to prove that it has fully shifted from just digital lending to an all-around digital finance platform.

The transition is set to lay the foundations for Carbon’s focus on providing a wide portfolio of services for its customers, as it introduces in-app credit reports and provides credit via QR codes, in partnership with Visa.

Speaking on Paylater’s new name, the company’s co-founder and CEO Chijioke Dozie said: “It was very deliberate – most of our customers only know us as Paylater which conjures up images of credit, but we have grown as a company to offer so much more. Carbon is one of the most essential elements for human life, it is found in all life forms and is extremely versatile. So to us, Carbon represents our aspiration to go everywhere with our customers, become an essential part of their lives and be versatile enough to change or innovate to fulfil their needs. We know what our customers’ pain points and needs are when it comes to banking in Africa and we are building financial products around them”.

Co-Founder Ngozi Dozie added: “We’re in a competitive space but whoever serves the customer best will reap the rewards. That’s been the thinking behind our product evolution, whether it’s our Bloom account targeted at female entrepreneurs or the partnerships we’ve been working on in the healthcare sector. The focus is on being attentive to what our customers want and need”.  

The updated Carbon mobile app is now available to download on the Google Play Store.

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