This article was written with support from 4G Capital
4G Capital, the leading neobank lender of MicroEnterprise, is on a mission to grow small and medium-sized businesses around the world. From bases in East Africa, FinTech is expanding its solutions to the global challenge of providing working capital to these businesses.
The fast-growing company, starting in sub-Saharan Africa, is pioneering technology-driven financial inclusion to fill the estimated emergency funding gap for the International Finance Corporation.
Through mobile money, we offer unsecured short-term loans for up to 30 days to small and medium-sized businesses in Kenya and Uganda. This is packed with customized business skills training to increase the likelihood of these excluded but potential microenterpris success.
By enabling these businesses to grow, 4G Capital unlocks the great opportunity for the rapidly expanding informal sector to create jobs and improve the quality of life in our communities. In Kenya, for example, according to the government's Economic Survey 2025, the informal sector is a key cog in the economy, supporting 83.6% of employment.
At the heart of 4G Capital's solutions is human customer service provided by a network of 1,600 agents from 211 branches in Kenya and Uganda.
Field staff is supported by the company's pioneering and unique AI-assisted technology platform, featuring an advanced valuation model that robustly selects, scales and approves the right loans for each future customer's business cycle. This minimizes defaults and average repayment rates of 94.6%.
Touch Tech Model
“We are providing African solutions to the global challenge of evolving and scaling unique touch technology models to unlock the possibilities of informal sectors. Starting with data from the ground through field officers, we are expanding our data and fintech to provide Wayne Hennessy Barett, founder and executive chairman of 4G.
Over a decade, fintech growth has been incredible and has recorded a market-leading impact. Since 2013, it has provided 5.5 million loans, equivalent to over $60 million customers. It has the ability to nearly double the capacity for over 36 months. This has helped our clients' businesses thrive. Of these, 72% are female traders, and 81% are based in rural markets, in addition to creating 1.3m of indirect jobs.
This has earned 4G Capital acclaim on a large scale and was recently named Best Fintech at the prestigious African Banker Awards 2025, celebrating the excellence and innovation of the African financial services industry. This is a new class committed to balancing purpose and profit, including being the best scoring fintech among B-corporation companies, in addition to multiple industry awards and certifications.
“We are committed to responsible lending to succeed when our customers are successful. To accommodate some of the most delayed entrepreneurs, our delivery models and backends are built to avoid incorrectly introducing more risks and vulnerabilities.
“Our intention is to create a global business neobank to help small businesses escape poverty traps through their success in the company,” adds Hennessy Barrett.
Building on great advancements and lessons learned in East Africa, 4G Capital is currently aiming for a global stage with a 10 tonne funding gap for small businesses. The solution will expand to other African markets before moving to Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. This will expand our products, lend more than $3.6 billion over the next five years, allowing small businesses not overlooked by formal lenders to flourish and transition into formal businesses, helping to grow the world's population.
This ambition requires access to critical capital for positive lending. This follows up on successful capital raises so far, from seed finance in 2013, 4G Capital Finance in 2016/17, Series B funding in 2020, and Series C funding in 2022.
“Growing investments in small and medium-sized businesses can help the economy while still gaining markets and gaining markets for investors,” says Hennessy Barrett.
