How this African company went from a startup to generating $2.8m in revenue in just two years – The inspiring story of Advancly

Lotanna Julian is the founder and CEO of Advancly, a B2B lender that offers credit-for-scale to creditworthy firms in Africa and emerging economies. From just a startup, Advancly has grown to a $2.8m revenue-generating company in just two years.

Despite the fact that it is a B2B lender, the company follows the Business to Business for Communities/Customers (B2B4C) model.

Using the B2B4C model, according to Lotanna, means that the company not only serves businesses, but also the people these businesses service. He emphasizes that the measure is intended to remove the restrictions 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.

Lotanna achieved this feat during a very difficult time when the Covid-19 pandemic had seriously affected the world economy. Notwithstanding these difficulties brought on by the pandemic, Advancly overcame them, increasing revenue by 400% from the previous year and providing over $33 million to MSMEs in Africa and emerging markets.

For Julian, reaching $2.8 million in sales wasn’t a smooth sail because he had to overcome obstacles including a lack of knowledge about debt and how to use it to expand.

“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.

The absence of sufficient data to credit score people or businesses is another difficulty he encountered. He argued that, in contrast to the West, the credit system in Africa is underdeveloped.

“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.

MarketForce & LipaLater, Sabi, and Credpal & Sytiamo are just a few of the well-known brands in Africa that Advancly has collaborated with to invest in. The ultimate objective of Julian’s business, he says, is to build a more developed financial ecosystem that gives borrowers additional options for obtaining loans outside of traditional financial institutions like banks.