Fairmoney

FairMoney is a mobile-first digital banking and lending platform serving underbanked consumers and small businesses in emerging markets, with its primary operations in Nigeria and a presence in India. The company began as a short-term lending platform and has since broadened into a full-stack neobank offering instant personal and business loans, savings products, debit cards, bill payments and point-of-sale services. Its Nigerian entity, FairMoney MFB, is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and customer deposits are insured by the NDIC.

The consumer app markets uncollateralized loans of up to NGN 3 million with repayment terms of 61 days to 18 months, a revolving credit product (FlexiCredit) on which interest accrues only on drawn amounts, and three savings products: FairLock (fixed-income, advertised at 18-28% p.a., up to 30% for first-time users), FairSave (flexible wallet, 17% p.a.) and FairTarget (goal-based, 20% p.a.). Additional features include free bank transfers, nationwide ATM card delivery, zero-fee bill payments, airtime and data discounts, facial-recognition security and card freeze/block controls. A representative loan example published on the app store shows NGN 100,000 borrowed over three months at a total cost of NGN 30,000, equivalent to a 120% representative APR.

According to a Newfund Capital portfolio page, the company was co-founded by Laurin Hainy (CEO), Nicolas Berthozat and Matthieu Gendreau (CTO); Berthozat is described on that page both as COO and, in the team listing, as Chief Product Officer. Startup Intros describes FairMoney as a Paris, France-based financial technology company founded in 2017 by Laurin Hainy, while listing its headquarters as Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; the Nigerian contact address given on the app listing is 28 Pade Odanye Close, Off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja.

Founding story

Newfund Capital states that FairMoney's three founders — Laurin Hainy, Nicolas Berthozat and Matthieu Gendreau — knew the Nigerian market and decided in 2017 to focus on underbanked people whose access to credit could change their lives, noting that only about 3% of Nigeria's population holds a credit card. Startup Intros reports that Hainy, who had been CEO of an early-stage VC firm and startup studio in Paris, drew on his childhood in Nigeria and on rising smartphone penetration (around 40% at the time) to build a digital short-term lending product; the company was subsequently introduced to investors such as TLcom Capital in 2019 via Lendable.

Business model

Credit-led acquisition followed by cross-sell: users are acquired through instant app-based loans and then offered savings accounts, debit cards, transfers, bill payments and POS services. FairMoney operates a licensed Nigerian microfinance bank (FairMoney MFB), funding lending in part through customer deposits.

Interest and fees on consumer and business loans (the app cites a representative 120% APR example), with deposit-taking and payments/card services as complementary lines. Startup Intros reports operating income of ₦52.2 billion for fiscal year 2024 and ₦3 billion paid in interest to users.

Traction

The Google Play listing reports 10M+ downloads, roughly 937,000 reviews and a 3.1 rating, and advertises 10,000+ daily disbursements and 5 million+ users. Startup Intros cites over 17 million application downloads, more than 6 million registered users, over 10,000 loans daily (one loan every ten seconds at peak), ₦35 billion in deposits by early 2025 and ₦52.2 billion of operating income in fiscal 2024.

Latest developments

The Android app was most recently updated on 7 August 2026 (version 10.41.0), and the company continues to market FlexiCredit, a revolving credit line with one-time approval, flexible withdrawals and interest charged only on amounts used.