Our Story

Building enterprise-grade Machine Learning software is in our DNA. African Microfinance is in our blood.

It started in the 1940s at Makola No.1 Market in Accra, Ghana. Our CEO’s grandmother ran a trading business that sourced products from foreign countries - and offered lines of credit to SMEs and micro traders. The family entered the formal microfinance business in the 1970s.

Fast forward to today and the Goodloans team is applying leading edge technology to promote financial inclusion and the development of African economies, by enabling access to credit on fair terms.

Goodloans is backed by leaders in banking and academia

The founders, Zak and Ioannis, met whilst working at Eigen Technologies, a machine learning Fintech based in London and New York that provides AI infrastructure for leading banks including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Zak Nason-Giwa

Co-Founder and CEO

Zak’s family has operated Microfinance Institutions in Ghana for decades. He spent time with the family business from 2009-2021, where he was exposed to lending activities across a broad spectrum of customers. Outside of the family business, the majority of his career has been spent in the enterprise technology space - notably with Oracle, where he made the first European sale of their machine learning SaaS platform. He holds an MSc in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester.

Dr. Ioannis Begleris

Co-Founder, Director of Science and Engineering

Ioannis specialises in developing Machine Learning platforms and data pipelines. Prior to co-founding Goodloans, he spent several years working as a data scientist and research engineer for leading telecommunications, consulting and fintech companies. Notably, he was responsible for developing the MLOps infrastructure at Eigen Technologies. He holds a PhD in Next Generation Computational Modelling from the University of Southampton.

Our Backers

Investors in Goodloans include Google, Venista Ventures, Gluwa Capital, Chandaria Capital, Artha India Ventures (led Tala’s seed round), Tom Blomfield (Co-Founder at Monzo and GoCardless), Kate Hiscox (Co-Founder at Sivo), Akin Jones (Co-Founder at Aella Credit), plus the first Angel backers of the African neobanks Carbon and Kuda. We’re proud to also be backed by Barclays Bank, AWS and Creative Destruction Lab (Oxford University).

Goodloans is backed by leading fintech investors and Africa-focused funds with exceptional networks

Goodloans won the biggest startup pitching competition in the UK in 2021