Nigerian fintech CreditChek has acquired Ugandan startup Algosys, marking the company's entry into Uganda and advancing its push to build credit and lending infrastructure across East Africa. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Algosys will operate as a subsidiary of CreditChek, and its team will be absorbed into the Nigerian firm.

The acquisition signals CreditChek's intention to move beyond its core business of helping lenders evaluate borrowers and toward building broader lending infrastructure. Founded in 2021 by Kingsley Ibe and Lionel Orishane, CreditChek provides credit assessment tools to banks, fintech companies, microfinance institutions, and other lenders, helping them determine whether customers are creditworthy.

The company aggregates data from a range of sources, including financial institutions, credit bureaus, and alternative data providers, and makes it available to lenders. Its product suite covers credit history checks, income verification, and banking data analysis, all designed to give lenders a clearer picture of a borrower's financial behaviour before approving a loan. To date, CreditChek has processed more than $60 million in credit applications and reached over 1 million unique profiles, and it has achieved profitability in Nigeria.

In June, CreditChek raised $600,000 from investors including Janngo Capital and Vastly Valuable Ventures to support the expansion of its credit data services across East Africa, targeting Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. The Algosys acquisition adds a new dimension to that strategy.

Algosys, founded in 2024 by Innocent Bigega and Simon Tayebwa, specialises in core banking and lending software for Uganda's financial institutions. Its clients include lenders, microfinance institutions, and savings and credit cooperatives, commonly known as SACCOs. Prior to the acquisition, Algosys had partnered with 22 financial institutions in Uganda and helped facilitate more than 10,000 SACCO loans.

The startup's software spans much of the lending process, from loan origination and portfolio management to savings, deposits, financial reporting, and credit checks. It also offers mobile and USSD access for financial institutions, a capability that complements CreditChek's credit assessment services.

In practical terms, CreditChek helps lenders decide whether a customer should receive a loan, while Algosys supplies the tools to process and manage those loans afterwards. Together, the combined businesses could allow CreditChek to play a far larger role in the end-to-end lending process.

The move is more than a market entry. CreditChek aims to build a system that supports lenders from customer acquisition through risk assessment, credit decisioning, loan origination, and lifecycle management. CEO Kingsley Ibe has emphasised the goal of going beyond simply supplying data to lenders, positioning the company as a full-stack partner rather than a standalone data provider.

The strategy builds on the company's recent growth efforts. Its $600,000 funding round was aimed at East African expansion, where inconsistent credit data poses challenges for lenders despite the rapid rise of digital financial services and mobile money — a gap CreditChek's approach of combining traditional and alternative data is designed to narrow.

With Algosys in its portfolio, CreditChek now pairs credit data services with core banking and lending software in a single market. That integration is particularly valuable in regions where financial transactions often take place outside traditional bank accounts. Uganda's robust mobile-money ecosystem generates extensive transaction and behavioural data that can help lenders understand consumers who lack deep traditional credit histories.

CreditChek intends to draw on a variety of financial and alternative data to help lenders make informed decisions, while Algosys provides the platform for managing credit activity. The acquisition reflects a broader ambition: rather than offering a single component of lending infrastructure, CreditChek seeks to connect credit assessment, lending decisions, and loan management.

By establishing a foothold in Uganda, the Nigerian fintech believes that controlling more of the lending process will strengthen its position as it expands across East Africa.

Source: TechNext24