SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, and Yabx Technologies (Netherlands) B.V., a company of Tech Mahindra (NSE: TECHM) group, a leading global provider of technology consulting and digital solutions to enterprises across industries, have signed a set of shareholder and technology collaboration agreements to formalise their joint investment in Furaha. SC Ventures has invested $ 7 million, while Yabx BV has contributed through technology transfer, resulting in a combined investment of $10 million in Furaha.
Incubated by SC Ventures, and co-founded by Yustus Aribariho and Ian Fernandes, Furaha is a purpose-driven lending platform aiming to make finance accessible across sub-Saharan Africa, with its first offering being in the education financing space. Furaha is headquartered in UAE’s Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and extending its offerings to local operating markets in Africa, starting with Uganda as its first market.
Among the biggest expenses families have to account for is the cost for good quality education for their children. Most parents lack adequate liquidity or access to short-term borrowing instruments — like credit cards or affordable, digital loans — and regularly face challenges paying school fees on time. Delayed or unpaid school fees often results in children unable to continue or complete their education, which impacts their future prospects and importantly the community and country’s development. The challenge is especially acute for parents with monthly incomes under $500.
Furaha offers a much-needed solution for parents and schools by creating a rich ecosystem of data for credit scoring and enabling commercial banks to channel affordable credit towards education financing. Furaha has started offering loan products in Uganda with partners including Opportunity Bank, SchPay and MTN MoMo and plans are underway to expand to other countries in Africa.