YC-backed Moni rebrands as Rank, backs its ambition with a bank acquisition

Moni, a Y Combinator-backed Nigerian fintech offering community banking services, has rebranded as Rank and acquired AjoMoney, a group savings platform, and Zazzau Microfinance Bank (MFB), part of its effort to offer a range of regulated financial services beyond savings, including payments and investment products.

As part of the deal, Zazzau MFB will now operate as Rank Microfinance Bank, giving the startup a regulatory base to scale its financial services.

“We can now go beyond savings to payments,” Femi Iromini, CEO of Rank, told TechCabal. “We can go into investing. And we are seeing the interests already.”

With the acquisition of AjoMoney, which comes with deep product experience in group savings, and Zazzau MFB, which provides regulatory depth, the YC-backed fintech is transforming from a community lending platform into a licensed provider of savings, payments, and investment services, while still anchored on the same social trust that powered its growth through its early days.

Rank did not disclose the cost of the acquisition. Zazzau MFB is listed as a Tier 2 MFB by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which commands a licensing fee of ₦250,000 ($173.94) and a minimum paid-up capital of ₦50 million ($34,788).

Launched in 2021, Moni, which is now Rank focused on group financing for small businesses, leveraging social trust from existing community structures like traditional ajo groups, while building a high-yield (23%) savings platform. In 2023, it disclosed that it had disbursed nearly ₦67 billion ($46.62 million) in loans to over 20,000 businesses, achieving a 96% repayment rate.

The company claims that the pilot of its savings feature recently reached 10,000 business owners and individuals across traders’ associations, market unions, and neighbourhood cooperatives. Participants pooled a minimum of ₦150,000 ($100) each, with the funds invested in government-backed securities like treasury bills and money markets, yielding returns of up to 23%. It delivered ₦16 billion ($11.25 million) in total payouts.

As part of its rebrand, Rank is rolling out this enhanced, high-yield group savings product (up to 23% per annum), starting in Nigeria.

“We have done the experiment, and we learned a lot,” Iromini said. “There is still more we can do with communities. For instance, we can create products around people being able to make payments together.”

The company’s new effort has been informed by the success of its early experiments, where it learnt that offering savings and loans was not enough. “We can go beyond savings and into payments and investing,” Iromini said.  “We are seeing the interests already. It makes sense that we transitioned from what Moni was limited to and have a bigger ambition in terms of the brand itself.”

Its new MFB acquisition will see it integrate with NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) to offer real-time payment access to its users, while offering normal account opening services.

Rank says it wants to empower communities to create wealth together by helping them save, spend, and invest, a task more established fintechs like Cowrywise and Piggyvest have undertaken for close to a decade. Unlike these fintechs, which target individuals, Rank wants to build its strength by serving people in groups.

“For instance, we have a golf community that we support. We have been able to work with members by offering them our wealth advisory services to help them achieve their aim,” Iromini said.

The leadership of both AjoMoney and Zazzau MFB will join Rank’s team.

“We modernised one of Africa’s oldest financial traditions—rotating savings and credit associations—and brought it into the digital era,” said Ibrahim Adepoju, CEO of AjoMoney. “Passing this vision to the Rank team is a natural next step.”

“The vision of a money app for communities is something that really excites us,” added Mohammed Usman, Director at Zazzau Microfinance Bank. “We are happy to be part of this journey.”

For Iromini, the success of this integration will depend on how well Rank can extend its new suite of services to users while earning their trust.

“In reality, they are entrusting us with their money,” he said. “Having the right backing when it comes to a license actually helps a lot with that.”