BAS Group, a Nigerian funding firm that controls companies in healthcare, micro-insurance, and finance, has acquired a majority stake in Zuvy Applied sciences, a Lagos-based startup that gives short-term financing to small companies by way of bill discounting. The worth of the all-cash deal was not disclosed, however BAS now owns greater than 50% of the corporate and has assumed operational management.
As a part of the transaction, all institutional traders in Zuvy have been purchased out. The startup’s co-founders, Angel Onuoha and Ahmad Shehu, will retain minority stakes however are stepping again from day-to-day operations.
The deal indicators BAS Group’s rising ambitions in Nigeria’s underserved SME finance market, the place a $236 billion credit score hole leaves many companies struggling to entry working capital. With the acquisition, the corporate provides invoice-backed credit score to its choices, permitting distributors that provide massive corporations—particularly fast-moving client items (FMCG) producers—to entry early cost on their invoices without having conventional collateral.
“Consider the Zuvy platform as one other add-on below our finance arm,” BAS Group CEO and founder Abdulateef Hussein informed TechCabal in an interview. “It’s going to be very seamless for us as a result of it’s only a new product added to our lending choices.”
Zuvy supplied short-term credit score (60–90 days) after distributors submitted invoices verified with the big corporations they equipped. BAS discovered Zuvy’s broad vendor listing enticing because it seeks to diversify its SME lending portfolio. The corporate noticed bill discounting as a approach to prolong credit score with larger confidence, utilizing verified invoices from distributors that provide items and companies to heavyweight prospects corresponding to Dangote, Eat n’ Go’s fast-food shops, and Ceremony Meals. That buyer-side credibility, Hussein believes, reduces danger and hurries up lending selections.
BAS Group, which additionally owns a micro-insurance (ALLY Microinsurance) enterprise and holds a stake in a microfinance financial institution (ALLYCare), will layer Zuvy’s lending platform with companies it already provides, corresponding to banking merchandise, health-maintenance cowl, and credit-life insurance coverage, to present small companies a broader suite of economic choices.
“We’re enthusiastic about this acquisition,” Hussein mentioned. “Numerous the infrastructure is prepared. It’s only for us to scale it with our capital and institutional relationships out there. Numerous the repayments we will likely be receiving will now be channeled by way of the Zuvy platform.”
Based in 2021, Zuvy started as a direct lender earlier than pivoting to a mortgage origination mannequin, serving to over 1,500 companies safe financing with assist from companions like TLG Capital and Advancly. In 2023, the startup raised $4.5 million in a debt and fairness spherical, with participation from TLG Capital, Dunbar Capital, Subsequent Chymia Consulting HK, and angel traders David Mussafer, Khalil Osman, and several other others.
Zuvy has totally repaid the $4 million debt it raised in that spherical, in response to Onuoha.
Regardless of spending years constructing infrastructure for invoice-based financing and filling a short-term credit score hole in Nigeria, Zuvy struggled to develop its mortgage e-book and scale quickly, partly as a result of its direct lending mannequin relied on steady fundraising. Looking for a mannequin that would assist long-term development, the startup shifted from direct lending to a mortgage origination mannequin, weighing the trade-offs between management and scalability.
“If you’re doing direct lending, you’ve full management over the precise forms of loans you need to disburse, however it depends on fixed fundraising to truly scale your mortgage e-book,” mentioned Onuoha. “With mortgage origination for different companions, you lose a few of that management, however we have been capable of massively scale our mortgage e-book by over ten instances the dimensions.”
But, Onuoha claims the startup was worthwhile on the time of acquisition.
Discussions round an acquisition had been ongoing for months. As soon as Zuvy’s founders understood what BAS was constructing and the depth of its expertise within the native market, they seen the funding firm as a strategic long-term associate. Underneath BAS, Zuvy may increase its mortgage e-book and attain extra companies by way of the corporate’s current monetary companies operations, which already serve small enterprises.
Inside BAS Group’s lending ambitions
In 2025, BAS Group launched BAS Finance Firm, its finance subsidiary, with three core lending merchandise: payroll lending, car-for-cash loans—which permit prospects to borrow in opposition to the worth of their autos—and collateral-backed SME loans. However Hussein mentioned these merchandise left many companies unserved.
“Most SMEs in Nigeria don’t have actual property or collateral, and even once they do, the approval course of is lengthy,” mentioned Hussein. “We determined to discover the invoice-discounting side so we are able to depend on the credibility of anchors like Dangote and Ceremony Meals. As soon as invoices are verified, we give a reduction on the again of that and nonetheless play within the SME lending house.”
BAS manages a ₦1.5 billion ($967,355) mortgage e-book and plans to funnel repayments and future disbursements by way of Zuvy’s tech-enabled system. The combination will likely be led by Kayode Adnan, COO of BAS Group, who additionally oversees the corporate’s lending unit.
The acquisition is not going to lead to layoffs, and Zuvy’s tech and enterprise growth groups will proceed below the BAS umbrella.
“We’ve been pals of the home for a really very long time due to our relationship with the founders,” Hussein mentioned. “So we’re not anticipating tradition shocks.”
Zuvy founders pivot to healthtech
Onuoha and Shehu have since based Avelis Well being, a US-based firm that helps sufferers spot errors of their medical payments. Their exit from Zuvy was deliberate earlier than the acquisition, with each founders stepping away from the startup in March, in response to their LinkedIn profiles. Their new startup, Avelis, was accepted into Y Combinator’s Summer season 2025 cohort.
“I’ve had a continual knee harm for the previous decade,” Onuoha mentioned. “Within the US, medical billing is a particularly advanced system. Oftentimes, if you go to the hospital, you’re massively overcharged, and your payments are filled with errors. I needed to discover a means to assist sufferers push again in opposition to these payments and provides them the instruments to truly pay honest costs for the care they obtain.”
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