Oze, the AI-powered digital lending software for financial institutions and SMEs, has secured new funding from global payment leader Visa and German development finance institution DEG. Existing investors, including Speedinvest and AfricInvest through its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, also participated in the round.
While the total amount raised was not disclosed, public records indicate that DEG’s Up-Scaling Programme committed $490,000 to Oze last year.
With this funding, Oze aims to scale its Lending Management System (LMS), a tool designed to help financial institutions—including banks, microfinance institutions, and fintechs—offer unsecured, no-collateral digital loans to merchants and small businesses. The LMS leverages Oze’s proprietary machine-learning credit risk algorithm to facilitate smarter and more efficient lending decisions.
“This funding will accelerate our mission to empower small businesses across Africa. By expanding our Lending Management System, we can enable more financial institutions to unlock SME potential and drive financial inclusion at an unprecedented scale,” said Meghan McCormick, Oze’s Co-founder and CEO.
Founded in 2016 by Meghan McCormick and Dave Emnett as a bookkeeping app for SMEs, Oze pivoted in 2023 to focus on facilitating SME lending for banks. This shift led to a 13-fold increase in revenue compared to 2022.
In partnership with commercial banks such as Ecobank, Oze currently operates in Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Rwanda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho, with plans for further expansion.
