What Makes AI Contract Review Smarter, Faster, and More Accurate?
May 26, 2025
Fawn Weaver Becomes Third African American Woman Inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame
May 29, 2025
Nigerian digital lender Carrot Credit has raised $4.2 million in seed funding to expand its asset-backed lending platform.
MaC Venture Capital led the round with backing from Authentic Ventures and Partech Africa.
The new funding will help the fintech startup to support product development and expansion across Africa.
How Does Carrot Credit Work?
Founded in 2023 by Boluwatife Aiki-Raji, Carrot Credit enables users to borrow without selling their investment portfolios. Instead of relying on traditional credit scores, the platform connects to users’ investment accounts, ranging from stocks and ETFs to fixed-income instruments like government bonds. It assesses their holdings to offer credit lines.
Related Post: Nigerian Fintech Raenest Secures $11M for African Expansion
Users can get up to 40% of their stock portfolio’s value or up to 70% of fixed-income assets. The platform secures a charge on these assets through API integrations, ensuring users retain ownership while leveraging their value.
The loan repayment terms are flexible, offering fixed durations of 3, 6, or 12 months or adjustable monthly payments. Interest rates are competitively low, giving it a strategic edge over many digital lenders in Nigeria.
Boluwatife Aiki-Raji, CEO and co-founder, says, “People were investing in all types of things—stocks, crypto, fixed income—but many didn’t recognise those investments as worth anything. That was the initial idea: why can’t this be collateral?”
The startup operates with an embedded B2B2C model, integrating its lending service into other fintech platforms, brokerages, and digital wealth managers across Africa. This approach widens access to credit and embeds Carrot’s services into the financial routines of digitally savvy customers.
So far, the startup has disbursed over $2 million in loans to over 10,000 users, proving early traction for its innovation. The company generates revenue from interest payments, which remain below market averages.
Related Post: Africa – The Next Big Fintech Hub?
A Low-Barrier Credit Solution
The business competes with other digital lenders such as Sycamore, Carbon, FairMoney, Aella Credit and others across Nigeria. However, it claims its flexible repayment options and below-market interest rates further differentiate it from Nigeria’s crowded field of digital lenders, where most competitors focus on short-term credit rather than asset-backed lending.
“What excites me about this investment is how Carrot is leveraging digital assets to create a seamless, low-barrier credit solution in markets where credit has traditionally been out of reach,” said Marlon Nichols, co-founder and partner of MaC Venture Capital.
Carrot is among the first few startups offering an alternative lending model on the continent. The fintech company’s approach to lending on the continent has been popularised by global firms such as BlockFi, Quick Lend, Lantern Finance, SALT, among others.
Related Post: African Remittance LemFi Secures $53M To Expand Into Europe
The new capital injection will help the fintech startup to support product development and expansion across Africa. As embedded finance gains traction in Africa, Carrot Credit’s approach could expand access to credit for a new generation of digital investors and financial platforms.
Main Image: Boluwatife Aiki-Raji, Cofounder and CEO of Carrot Credit
