Nexora Capital — Executive Summary
The opportunity in numbers, the ask and the true capital stack and the investment highlights for Nexora's SME digital-banking and funding platform.
Section 1 · Business Plan
Executive Summary
The opportunity in numbers, the ask and the true capital stack and the investment highlights for Nexora’s SME digital-banking and funding platform.
Nexora Capital (Pty) Ltd is a next-generation SME
digital banking and funding platform headquartered in Johannesburg,
established to close the structural financing gap facing South African
small and medium-sized enterprises. Inspired by the proven trajectory of
leading SME digital banking platforms in South Africa which evolved from
a pure digital SME lender into a full-service cash-flow management
ecosystem backed by the IFC, Lightrock, DEG and FMO, Nexora combines
AI-powered underwriting, integrated business banking, embedded invoice
and procurement finance, payments infrastructure and cash-flow analytics
into a single operating system for SMEs.
South Africa’s SME sector contributes roughly a third of GDP and the
majority of private-sector employment, yet the formal SME financing gap
is estimated at approximately R500 billion. Traditional banks continue
to impose slow approvals, heavy collateral requirements and paper-based
processes on precisely the segment least equipped to absorb them.
Digital challengers have demonstrated that revenue-based, data-driven
underwriting can profitably serve this market at speed. Nexora’s thesis
is that the winning platform will be the one that owns the SME’s full
financial workflow, account, payments, receivables, credit and
analytics, rather than any single product.
The Opportunity in Numbers
| Metric | FY2027 | FY2028 | FY2029 | FY2030 | FY2031 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (Rm) | 55 | 160 | 420 | 980 | 1,900 |
| EBITDA (Rm) | (22) | 18 | 96 | 290 | 620 |
| Gross loan book (Rm) | 120 | 450 | 1,200 | 2,800 | 5,500 |
| SME customers | 6,000 | 25,000 | 80,000 | 180,000 | 350,000 |
| Profit after tax (Rm)* | -49 | -27 | -19 | 36 | 129 |
| EBITDA margin | -40% | 11% | 23% | 30% | 33% |
* Analyst re-derived: after depreciation, full warehouse funding
costs, revolving credit facility interest and 27% corporate tax with
assessed-loss carry-forward. Sponsor headline revenue and EBITDA are
preserved exactly.
The Ask and the True Capital Stack
The Company is raising R750 million of equity
capital to fund the lending capital pool (first-loss capital),
platform build, regulatory capital, market expansion and customer
acquisition. Critically, the plan is honest that the equity raise is
only the junior layer of the funding programme: growing the loan book to
R5.5 billion by FY2031 requires a ring-fenced securitisation warehouse
building to approximately R4.4 billion of senior debt,
taking the true peak capital stack to roughly R5.15
billion, 6.9x the headline raise. This structure, its covenants
and its phasing are set out in full in the Financial Plan.
funding programme
The R750m equity raise funds only the junior/first-loss layer. At an
80% senior advance rate, the FY2031 book of R5,500m requires a warehouse
of R4,400m and first-loss capital of R1,100m. Projected equity available
by FY2031 (paid-in capital plus retained earnings) is approximately
R820m, leaving a first-loss shortfall of roughly R280m that must be met by a Series B equity round or mezzanine tranche in
Years 3–4. Investors should underwrite the R750m raise on the explicit
understanding that a follow-on raise is structurally required, not
optional.
Investment Highlights
- Proven model, deeper moat: validated digital SME
finance in South Africa; Nexora extends it with procurement finance,
trade finance and treasury tools that deepen switching costs. - Attractive unit economics: blended LTV/CAC
improves from 1.6x to 11.3x as the ecosystem cross-sell matures;
cost-to-income converges from 140% to 67% by FY2031. - Bankable structure: ring-fenced, NCA-registered
warehouse SPV with 80% advance rate, eligibility criteria, portfolio
triggers and a first-loss equity cushion, a structure familiar to DFI
and securitisation lenders. - Development impact: 350,000 SMEs served by
FY2031, directly supporting employment retention and formalisation,
aligned to IFC, DBSA, IDC and FMO mandates. - Clear exit paths: JSE listing, strategic
acquisition by global fintech or banking group, or private equity
buyout, with Tyme Group and international processors identified as
plausible acquirers.
Confidential — this business plan is provided to prospective investors and lenders for evaluation purposes only and may not be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of Nexora Capital (Pty) Ltd.