Paylater, the Nigerian fintech company specialising in consumer lending, has confirmed its much-anticipated name change in light of its growing banking services.
Re-launching as Carbon, the rebrand reflects the company’s deliberate transition to a fully-fledged digital financial services platform that now offers bill payments, fund transfers and savings products, in addition to loans.
A statement from the company explains that as it positions itself as a financial partner for its customers and goes beyond banking, the rebrand also sees the company’s mobile app being 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 which Nigerians currently face in accessing and paying for it. In the near future, Carbon 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, after they acquired payments company Amplify, cementing their move into multiple strands of financial services. Carbon also secured a $5million 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.
