Babatunde Akin-Moses is the CEO and Co-founder of Sycamore: A peer to peer (P2P) lending platform that connects lenders to borrowers, with focus on small and medium sized businesses (SMEs).
Prior to 2018, many people would have pegged Tunde as someone who would climb the corporate ladder up to the executive level, having had close to a decade experience in industry and consulting, having worked with some multi-national consulting firms.
However, Tunde’s passion has always had a passion for entrepreneurship and SMEs. While at PwC, he was the deputy head of the firm’s Tax Academy and pioneered a training program for SMEs in 2017, which still runs till this very day even after he left the practice.
While at business school, he and his co-founders stumbled on some interesting data. Only 1% of all loans given out in corporate Nigeria goes to all the 37 million estimated SMEs in Nigeria. They decided to do something about it and that’s how Sycamore was born.
Incorporated in 2018 from Tunde’s living room in 2018, Sycamore has since grown to a 16-man team, with a corporate office in the commercial area of Surulere Lagos. The company has been able to connect investors to over 2,000 customers since the time, who have funded these businesses with over about a quarter of a billion naira collectively. These businesses range from several industries such as transportation, hospitality, education, and health care.
Sycamore has been able to maintain a very low default rate on its loans, as it places a premium on the character of its borrowers. The company has a methodology to vet applicants’ integrity on its platform – a process which has been pivotal to the company’s resounding success so far. The company is not resting on its achievements in any way and plans to extend its platform to a few more African countries in the next 2 or 3 years.
Tunde is a chartered accountant who received his professional training from Shell, KPMG, PwC and Pezesha (a Fintech based in Nairobi, Kenya). He also holds an MBA from Lagos Business School and IESE Business School, Barcelona. He is a well published author having written for major Nigerian newspapers. He is deeply passionate about making Nigeria (and Africa) as a whole, a prosperous place where everyone can thrive and achieve their dreams.