Frederic Nze is the CEO and founder of Oakam, a UK micro-lender that serves the needs of immigrant communities; in...
Branch CEO Matt Flannery is not new in the micro-lending lending space having previously co-founded Kiva; Flannery realized that there was much more potential in lending across the globe outside of the non-profit space; Branch has an app that uses information from the phone to score credit in places like Nigeria and Kenya; the Series B round was led by Trinity Ventures and included other big names such as Andreessen Horowitz and CreditEase Fintech investment fund; the company also secured a $50 million debt facility from Victory Park Capital. Source
The new regulation came from a new state body focused on regulating internet finance; it put a stop to new approvals of offline micro lending companies; companies already in operation may see heavier regulation which has caused drops in the share price of recent IPOs including ZhongAn, Ppdai and Qudian. Source