Why We Invested in E-doc: Building Essential Open Banking Infrastructure

Fragmentation of data and information systems presents a fundamental challenge to the growth of financial services in Africa. Without the ability to easily access and manage financial information across institutions, critical functions like regular payments,credit underwriting, and KYC/due diligence become difficult, costly, and unreliable. This ultimately slows the digitalization of financial services and limits financial inclusion on the continent. The high cost of unreliable payment collection and lost revenue limits overall economic growth.

We believe that solving this fragmentation is key to unlocking the next wave of fintech growth, which is why we are excited to announce our investment in e-Doc Online.

WHAT DOES E-DOC ONLINE DO?

e-Doc is a B2B Open Banking solution that provides a layer of secure financial data infrastructure across Nigerian banks. It simplifies access to financial data for crucial decision-making processes.

e-Doc integrates directly with banks' transaction and account databases to provide real-time, high-quality transaction data for risk assessment. After requesting consent from customers, e-Doc pulls the data and uses a Machine Learning model to analyze it, automatically categorizing transactions by sources and frequency of income or expenditure.

This solution hasa wide range of use cases for both individuals and businesses, including:

• Accelerated credit assessment
• Streamlined KYC processes
• Thorough financial due diligence
• Reliable implementation of direct debit or automated payment recovery

By using this integrated and automated solution, e-Doc introduces reliability and accuracy of information, allowing clients to significantly reduce the cost and time taken to complete these critical tasks, while also fundamentally improving credit risk management and reducing instances of non-performing loans (NPLs).

WHAT IS E-DOC'S UNIQUE ADVANTAGE?

The e-Doc team has secured direct integrations with all the major banks in Nigeria. This achievement gives them two decisive advantages:

1. Superior Data Quality: They do not rely on screen scraping to capture data. Instead, their direct integrations ensure they receive real-time, 100% accurate data.
2. Market Coverage: These integrations provide them with near-complete coverage of the Nigerian banking market. This is a powerful value proposition for any business needing to conduct thorough credit assessment, KYC, or perform direct debit in the country.

Moreover, e-Doc strategically positions itself as a technology partner to the banks. Banks can monetize their data securely and also benefit themselves from more complete data access across different databases, fostering a collaborative ecosystem.

WHY WE INVESTED IN E-DOC ONLINE

1. Strong Experienced Team

The founding team brings vast experience, having previously built and scaled Open Banking infrastructure products in the highly competitive UK market and having worked with African banks as senior technology providers. They possess both the global expertise and the local network to execute this complex vision.

2. Strategic Traction

Securing direct integrations with major Nigerian banks is a unique and very impressive feat. Itdemonstrates the team's ability to build key networks and partnerships, and their strong execution capabilities on the technology front.

3. First-Mover Advantage and 'Stickiness'

e-Doc is pioneering this form of Open Banking infrastructure in Nigeria, building exclusively on direct bank integrations rather than screen scraping. This is an inherently 'sticky' service: once integrated, clients are deeply embedded in the e-Doc ecosystem. This strong foundation positions the team to become the leading provider, quickly gaining significant market share andsecuring a commanding market position.

We believe e-Doc are laying the digital rails for a more efficient and inclusive financial system in Africa's largest economy.