The Backend: At Payble, no SME is “too small”

Summary

Payble is a Lagos-founded startup building a practical platform for Africa’s tiniest businesses — the market traders, kiosks and salons that rarely exceed survival-level revenues. The product bundles inventory tracking, cashflow monitoring, invoicing, payments and, eventually, targeted credit. Crucially, Payble embeds simple learning nudges and local-language AI prompts so users with little formal training can make better, data-informed decisions.

Key Points

Many informal businesses in Nigeria operate hand-to-mouth: most earn under ₦250,000 monthly and keep no books, per the Moniepoint 2024 report.
Payble aims to give microentrepreneurs the same operational infrastructure as larger firms but tailored to low-cost, everyday realities.
The platform combines practical features: inventory, cashflow visibility, invoicing, digital payments and learning modules that nudge better habits.
Credit is offered as a later step, backed by transaction history collected on the platform to link loans to business needs and reduce default risk.
Payble is experimenting with AI agents for operational alerts (e.g. low stock, cashflow gaps) and tunes interactions in local languages to improve adoption.
The startup launched in 2023, runs a lean team, and is partnering with banks and insurers to offer bundled micro-products like small-ticket health cover and overdrafts.
Payble will be presenting at Moonshot by TechCabal, positioning the company to pressure-test ideas with founders and investors.

Content summary

Roosevelt Elias and co-founders built Payble to break the survival cycle that traps microentrepreneurs. Rather than pushing credit first, Payble focuses on record-keeping and behavioural nudges so that when lending happens it supports restocking and growth, not personal shortfalls. The product recognises the hybrid cash/digital reality of informal trade and aims for slow mindset change through embedded lessons and simple, actionable insights.

Operationally, Payble is small and deliberate: founded in 2023, with a split Lagos/remote team and partnerships to scale merchant onboarding. The company is courting early-stage investors but emphasises sustainable growth. Challenges remain — patchy payment infrastructure and the long time needed to build trust and financial education — but Payble’s counterintuitive stance is that informal businesses can and should be built up, not written off.

Context and relevance

This article matters because informal microbusinesses form the economic backbone for millions across Africa, yet they are underserviced by products designed for larger firms. Payble’s approach intersects fintech, financial inclusion and digital tools for SMEs — areas attracting investor and policymaker attention. The company’s focus on records-first credit, local-language AI nudges and partnerships with banks/insurers reflects broader industry trends: embedding education into products and shifting lending from risk-based exclusion to data-driven inclusion.

Why should I read this?

If you care about fintech that actually helps people make more money (not just fancy dashboards), this one’s worth a skim. Payble isn’t trying to slap enterprise tech onto market stalls — it’s building tiny, useful tools that nudge better decisions and only then offer formal credit. It’s practical, locally aware and quietly contrarian. Read it to see a real-world take on fixing the root cause of microbusiness stagnation, not just another lending play.

Author style

Punchy. The piece cuts to why Payble’s work matters and highlights the startup’s humility and long-game focus. It’s written to save you time — if you want the gist of an inclusion-first fintech play for micro traders, the article does the heavy lifting.