In a strategic move, Vella Finance, a pioneering fintech company, has decided to discontinue its cryptocurrency-based services to concentrate solely on Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) banking. The firm, which originally aimed to facilitate crypto spending in Africa and establish global payment infrastructures for businesses, recently informed its users and subscribers via email that all crypto-related operations, including trading, deposits, wallets, and fiat-to-crypto swaps, will cease on October 30, 2023.
Launched in 2021, Vella Finance has been instrumental in enabling businesses to accept global payments and conduct crypto transactions. Despite their success in the crypto sphere, the company’s co-founder, Tolu Adedayo, explained the decision as a necessary business move. He stated, “We’re going fully into SME Banking. Banking requires playing within regulatory confines. We already serve businesses from the onset backed by user and transactional data. It makes sense to offer an end-to-end banking system to serve them better. It’s a business decision; there’s no way we will run banking and crypto together.”
Vella Finance’s notable offering, “Launch by Vella,” allowed small businesses to formalize their operations by registering with the Corporate Affairs Commission for a fee of N18,000 ($14). This service, coupled with providing instant business bank accounts and essential payment infrastructure for local and online payments, aimed to address the needs of underserved and informal SMEs, crucial contributors to Nigeria’s GDP.
Adedayo emphasized their commitment to supporting SMEs, stating, “A good number of the SMEs driving Nigeria’s GDP are informal and financially underserved. What we do at Vella is help them formalize via Launch by Vella, give them instant business bank accounts, and provide them with payment infrastructure to enable payment collections locally on their websites/online stores. Vella also allows them to create invoices and payment links for free.”
Looking ahead, Vella Finance plans to enhance its offerings further. Adedayo hinted at upcoming developments, saying, “We will be announcing new features in the coming weeks that solidify our full entrance into the business banking space.” This strategic shift underscores Vella Finance’s dedication to supporting the growth and development of SMEs in Nigeria while adhering to regulatory guidelines.