Woven Finance, the fintech start-up established by Trium, an endeavor group by Coronation Group, is terminating its service, according to an e-mail shown clients on Wednesday early morning.
The fintech, which was totally certified by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2022, and has a Payment Solutions Service Provider (PSSP) licence, will move its services to Hydrogen, a fintech business owned and run by Access Bank. Entering into Hydrogen will assist Access Bank take on GTCO’s fintech, Squad. Kemi Okusanya, a previous General Manager at Visa West Africa, leads hydrogen.
“After a comprehensive analysis of the existing market characteristics and their effect on our company design, Woven Finance has actually dealt with to stop its payment services operations in the very first quarter of 2024,” Woven Finance stated in an e-mail to clients.
Woven Finance Origin story
Woven Finance, which set out to”debunk digital payments,
was established in 2020 by Adedeji Olowe. It offered itself to entrepreneur by using a virtual account with which they might gather payments, getting rid of typical issues like reconciliation and settlements.
The business’s creator, Olowe, likewise ran Trium, the innovation endeavor fund for the Coronation Group. The Coronation Group, that includes business like Coronation Merchant Bank and Coronation Insurance (previously WAPIC), entered into Access Bank after the acquisition of Intercontinental Bank.
In 2011, a regulation from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) required banks to divest their non-banking organizations or restructure into holding business. At the time, Access Bank– which embraced a holding business structure in 2022– picked to spin off the Coronation Group.
While it stays uncertain the specific characteristics that led Woven Finance to terminate operations, one theory is that increasing competitors from developed fintechs and other bank-led fintechs like Squad, Zest and Hydrogen might have triggered the choice.
* This is an establishing story