Paylater, a Nigerian fintech company specializing in consumer lending, has changed its name to Carbon in light of its growing banking services.
The new name, the company says, reflects its deliberate transition to a fully-fledged digital financial services platform that now offers bill payments, fund transfers, and savings products, in addition to loans.
As Carbon Nigeria positions itself as a financial partner for its customers and goes beyond banking, the rebrand also sees the company’s mobile app renamed to Carbon, which introduces brand new products such as free credit reports and a wallet for its customers to perform discounted transactions.
The transition is set to lay the foundations for Carbon’s focus on providing a wide portfolio of services for its customers, as it introduces in-app credit reports and provides credit via QR codes, in partnership with Visa.
Speaking on Paylater’s new name, the company’s co-founder and CEO Chijioke Dozie said: “It was very deliberate – most of our customers only know us as Paylater which conjures up images of credit, but we have grown as a company to offer so much more. Carbon is one of the most essential elements for human life, it is found in all life forms and is extremely versatile.
“So to us, Carbon represents our aspiration to go everywhere with our customers, become an essential part of their lives and be versatile enough to change or innovate to fulfill their needs. We know what our customers’ pain points and needs are when it comes to banking in Africa and we are building financial products around them”.
The company is also looking to move into providing health insurance for its customers as it looks to lessen the burdens Nigerians currently face in accessing and paying for it.
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In the near future, Carbon Nigeria will also be launching their very own virtual Visa card for customers to handle transactions.
Co-Founder Ngozi Dozie added: “We’re in a competitive space but whoever serves the customer best will reap the rewards. That’s been the thinking behind our product evolution, whether it’s our Bloom account targeted at female entrepreneurs or the partnerships we’ve been working on in the healthcare sector. The focus is on being attentive to what our customers want and need”.
The rebrand brings to a close a busy few months for Carbon Nigeria, after they acquired payments company Amplify, cementing their move into multiple strands of financial services.
Carbon Nigeria also secured a $5mn investment from fintech platform Lendable highlighting a bubble of activity for the company and in 2018, became the first African fintech platform to secure a Credit Rating.
The updated Carbon mobile app is now available to download on the Google Play Store.
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