(Right to Left) Franck Moreau Country Manager - Carrefour East Africa and Eric Muli CEO Lipa Later during the ceremony to mark the roll out of the LipaVismart product powered by Lipa Later for all Carrefour customers.

Africa focused buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services provider Lipa Later has raised US$12-million which it intends to use to expand its operation into new markets.

Lipa Later currently operates in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda has announced it will use the funds – secured through a consortium of investors and is a combination of equity and debt – to explore more opportunities in Nigeria, as well as new markets Ghana and Tanzania.

The funding will also allow Lipa Later to provide its BNPL services to its substantial current pipeline of consumers supporting Lipa’s exclusive partnerships with merchants in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Lipa Later started in Kenya in 2018 and its recent round of funding attracted backing from Cauris Finance, Lateral Frontiers Ventures, GreenHouse Capital, SOSV IV LLC, Sayani Investments and Axian Financial Services.

Speaking about the investment, Samakab Hashi, Partner at Lateral Frontier Ventures, said, “Over the last few years, we have watched Eric Muli, CEO of Lipa Later and his team put together the building blocks for Pan-African expansion and this round of funding takes Lipa Later one step closer to being the dominant Buy-Now-Pay-Later player on the Continent.”

Lipa Later said has tapped into the rapidly growing online presence across Africa and built a unique BNPL option API that integrates into e-commerce platforms enabling merchants to sell products directly to consumers and pay for them in affordable monthly instalments.

“Lipa Later’s proprietary one of a kind credit scoring and machine learning system enables the consumer to sign up and get a credit limit in seconds without the need for bulky documentation and a long lengthy credit approval process,” the company explained.

Azer Songnaba, the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Cauris, added, “With formal credit available to only a tiny minority in Lipa Later’s target markets, we are excited to be supporting Lipa Later and its unique capabilities in bolstering consumer credit in the region.”

Ruby Nimkar, Partner at GreenHouse Capital, said, “Lipa Later is not only changing the consumer credit landscape across Africa, which to date has been largely inaccessible for most, but also catalysing the future of shopping, e-commerce and payments.”

“They've done this in a truly product and customer-led way that benefits both merchants and consumers and has proven to be incredibly scalable across multiple markets,” he explained.

Eric Muli, the Co-Founder and CEO of Lipa Later said, “We are excited to be working with our investors as we look to grow and expand to more markets in Africa. In the next 12 months we are looking to grow and double our presence in the existing markets, even as we open in three to five new markets in Africa.”