Building a bank for SMEs | Sola co-founder of Brass

17/06/2021 31 min

Listen "Building a bank for SMEs | Sola co-founder of Brass"

Episode Synopsis

In this episode we speak to Sola the co-founder of Brass which provides banking and financial services for SMEs. SMEs are fundamental to Sub-Saharan Africa with them accounting for about 80% of the region's economic growth in 2015 according to The World Economic Forum. Sola and Brass have quickly gained respect and traction for the SME neobank that they are building. We hear about: 
0:00 - Introduction to Sola & Brass 
02:15 - The SME banking experience in Nigeria without Brass
06:31 - Brass' approach to user research 
07:46 - SME loans and needs
10:22 - Why Nigerian SMEs have multiple bank accounts & other cultural nuances
12:52 - Brass' evolution & learnings from past iterations
17:50 - How Brass approaches design & their learnings 
20:09 - Brass & expansion 
22:01 - Brass & partnerships 
23:30 - The differences between Kenyan & Nigerian customers
24:40 - Brass & the future