Instant loan application Lupiya has been selected for Google’s first ‘Black Founders Fund’, an initiative started by the $2 trillion company in order to promote African Founders. Lupiya became famous as the first female led start-up to raise over $1million in investment last year. 70% of Zambians currently do not have access to formal banking, Lupiya aims to fill that gap with cheap loans with reasonable terms to female entrepreneurs. Lupiya is the first Zambian company to receive google funding.
What does Lupiya do?
Lupiya was started by Muchu and Evelyn Kaingu in early 2016. The company is focused on providing micro loans to users who can apply for up to K1.5 million just from their phones. The software is powered by technology which assesses user credit worthiness and provides payment terms based on various factors. Lupiya focuses primarily on lending to female entrepreneurs / marketeers with finance supply for stores and market stalls. The company started out with 100 marketeers and has expanded rapidly ever since.
Lupiya is offering extremely low interest rates on loans with reasonable repayment schedules to provide consumers with alternate financing. Interest rates in Zambia average 20-30% from commercial bank loans and microfinance can go up to 80%. Currently entrepreneurs in the market are desperate for financing with many resorting to loan sharking or sports betting in attempts to raise funding for businesses. Lupiya offers these business owners a safe haven by ensuring cheap loans which allow users to reinvest profits in their businesses and continue to grow.
Financing the Future
In an interview with the Guardian in Nigeria, the Lupiya CEO described her inspiration for starting the company :
“ I was a salaried employee looking to start a business and did not meet the criteria to be able to apply for a loan. So I started thinking how best I could create smaller loan packages which can be marketed to businesses and people exactly like me”
After substantial success having started a lending company, the start-up pivoted to make the product consumer facing. This started with building their website which allows users to instantly apply for loans. In the early stages of this process, the Lupiya team would be responsible for vetting potential clients. This has evolved to depend more on the technology over time.
Last year Lupiya became the second Zambian start-up to receive a $1 million following an investment by Enygma Ventures led by Lelemba Phiri. Following this investment the companies expansion has attracted an investment of K 6 million from Google, as well as technical assistance as the company pivots for its next stage.