Aella YC Application

Winter 2017Active

Aella went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2017 batch as a Fintech company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Winter 2017
Industry: FintechCredit and Lending
Team size: 60
Status: Active
Launched: 2016

Founders

Akin JonesFounder/CEO

What Aella does

Aella is a diversified credit payments platform with over 2 million users, offering a raft of financial services to underbanked users across Africa with a focus on lending. We are at the forefront of financial inclusion and empowerment of the underbanked. Aella’s Debt-as-a-service model ensures that agents across Africa are able to have quick and easy access to funding through its partnerships with leading agency banks across the continent.

Aella's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Aella, Winter 2017 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Aella

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Diversified credit infrastructure powering payments across Africa

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built a credit payments platform that enables agents and underbanked users across Africa to access quick and flexible loans. Our Debt-as-a-service model integrates with agency banks so partners can provide funding easily, expanding access to credit where traditional lending falls short. We focus on making lending work at scale by connecting users, agents, and banks into one system.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live and operate in Lagos, Nigeria, and will remain based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Lagos is the center of our users and partners. Being on the ground lets us understand the challenges agents and underbanked Africans face day to day. Serving this market remotely would be impossible given how localized and trust-based financial services here are.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Aella YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Aella's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Aella would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.