Lotanna Julian is the founder and CEO of Advancly, a B2B lender that offers credit-for-scale to creditworthy businesses in Africa and emerging markets. Despite the fact that it is a B2B lender, the company follows the Business to Business for Communities/Customers (B2B4C) model.
Adopting the B2B4C model, according to the CEO, means that the company not only serves businesses, but also the people these businesses serve. He emphasizes that the move is intended to remove the barriers that prevent people from obtaining credit-for-scale.
“The biggest example of this is that we have an unconventional approach to securing our funds, making it possible for creditworthy businesses, even those in very early stages, to meet our requirements to access credit,” he told Business Insider.
Julian has grown the company from a startup to a $2.8 million revenue-generating business in just two years. The entrepreneur achieved this success during a difficult period in which the global economy was severely impacted by the pandemic. Nonetheless, Advancly overcame the pandemic-induced challenges, increasing its income by 400% over the previous year and disbursing over $33 million to MSMEs in Africa and Emerging Markets.
Julian’s path to $2.8 million in revenue was not without challenges, including a lack of knowledge about debt and how to use debt to grow.
“People are scared of debt and are reluctant to take it because they view it as inherently bad, so we’ve had to do a lot of education about how debt can be an instrument for growth, as long as they’re responsible borrowers taking credit from responsible lenders,” he said.
Also, another challenge he faced is the lack of adequate data to credit score people/businesses. He explained that the credit system in Africa is not developed as compared to the Western world.
“The data penetration for credit bureaus and agencies is not as robust as it should be, so we’ve built our own models and gathered our own data that enables us to credit score businesses from scratch,” he adds.
Julian says he is looking forward to injecting $500m in debt into creditworthy MSMEs in Africa and Emerging Markets by 2026.
“We like to say that we are building the rail tracks to deliver a more modern and robust financial ecosystem to Africa and emerging markets,” he said. “The lending gap is currently extremely wide, so even as we are working to close it, we are also providing technology, platforms, and data that will enable others to work to close it as well.”
So far, Advancly has partnered to invest in well-known African brands such as MarketForce & LipaLater, Sabi, and Credpal & Sytiamo. According to Julian, his company’s ultimate goal is to build a more robust financial ecosystem in which borrowers have more options for credit beyond banks and traditional financial institutions.
