The founders of Carbon, a Nigerian fintech firm-Chijioke Dozie and Ngozi Dozie; have been selected by an International Selection Panel (ISP) that recently sat in Istanbul Turkey, to join the 91st Endeavor high-impact entrepreneurship program.
The Carbon duo were interviewed alongside other entrepreneurs from around the world by panelists drawn from Endeavor’s extensive network of board members, mentors, supporters, and experienced Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
They were interviewed about their businesses, evaluating them on their potential for high-impact growth, and over the course of a three-day event, the ISP deliberated on which candidates should be selected to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
“Over the years, even as Endeavor has evolved, our selection process has remained the same. The ISP is really where you can see the power of Endeavor’s global network in action, and the candid conversations and caliber of the entrepreneurs this week in Istanbul is a testament to that,” said Endeavor Co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg.
“We’re thrilled to welcome the 24 new Endeavor Entrepreneurs to our high-impact global community.”
As entrepreneurs joining Endeavor, Chidozie and Ngozi will gain access to comprehensive customized services, including introductions to local and international business mentors and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.
Describing Carbon and its social impact in Nigeria, an Endeavor press statement says: “While 40 million Nigerians have bank accounts, only 1 million have an active loan from a regulated financial institution.
“Credit bureaus, relying on traditional sources of data, are only able to cover 11% of the population. The rest are thin credit file users, where credit bureaus have limited data due to factors including Nigeria’s poor addressing system, fragmented national identification systems and a largely informally employed population.
“However, 60 million Nigerians have mobile phones and are generating increasing volumes of non-traditional data, through their use of their mobile phones and their transaction history.
“By analyzing a consumer’s digital footprint, Carbon is able to assess credit-worthiness and provide short term, unsecured loans to any Nigerian with a smartphone and a bank account within 5 minutes, via a mobile app.”
Carbon in recent weeks has taken some giant strides in becoming a robust fintech startup and digital bank. To achieve this, it changed its name from Paylater to Carbon after it acquired another fintech startup, Amplify and secured a $5mn debt financing from fintech platform Lendable. It also recently launched Carbon my business to provide African startups with the services and technology needed to build and scale their businesses.
