Hundreds of millions of people in Nigeria and India need credit and can't get it. Their phone data can predict creditworthiness better than a FICO score ever could.
Our first loans were $10. That sounds small until you realize $10 is a week's groceries for a family in Lagos. Small money, big impact.
Informal moneylenders in Nigeria charge 100% monthly interest. We charge 10-30%. We're not cheap by Western standards. We're revolutionary by local standards.
A French guy building a digital bank for Nigerians sounds unlikely. But I spent years working in mobile financial services across Africa. This isn't tourism. It's my career.
The microfinance industry has a dark side. Predatory lenders, debt traps, harassment. We have to be different, or we're part of the problem.