Creditchek, a financial technology infrastructure company building the data and technology infrastructure powering credit decisions across Africa, today announced the acquisition of Algosys, a Ugandan core banking software startup serving Lenders, Saccos, and MFIs in Uganda.
The acquisition gives Creditchek a direct foothold in Uganda and advances its long-term strategy to build the full-stack infrastructure powering credit and lending across Africa.
Following the acquisition, Algosys will operate as a subsidiary of Creditchek, marking Creditchek’s formal entry into Uganda and representing an important milestone in the company’s broader expansion across East Africa.
The acquisition brings together Creditchek’s credit assessment and financial data infrastructure with Algosys’ core banking technology and established relationships with financial institutions, creating an opportunity to build more localised and comprehensive lending infrastructure for the African market.
Founded just two years ago by Innocent Bigega and Simon Tayebwa, Algosys has already built significant traction in Uganda, serving 22 financial institutions and facilitating over 10,000+ Sacco loans.
From credit assessment to full-stack lending infrastructure
Creditchek’s strategy is built around a simple observation: the future of lending in Africa will require more than access to credit data.
Across African markets, Saccos, lenders and MFIs operate in highly fragmented financial ecosystems where traditional credit histories are often incomplete, bank account data is difficult to access, and a significant portion of economic activity takes place outside the formal banking system.
This creates a fundamental challenge for lenders. A consumer may have little or no traditional credit history while still generating substantial financial activity through mobile money wallets, digital platforms and other financial channels.
Creditchek has built its business around solving this problem through its credit, income and identity intelligence infrastructure.
The acquisition of Algosys takes that strategy a step further.
“Our ambition is to own more of the value chain in the lending process,” said Kingsley Ibe, CEO and Co-founder of Creditchek. “We want to move beyond simply providing data to lenders and build the infrastructure that enables them to acquire customers, assess risk, make credit decisions, originate loans and manage those loans throughout their lifecycle. By combining Algosys’ core banking infrastructure with Creditchek’s credit and financial data capabilities, we can build much more localised underwriting infrastructure for African markets.”
The combined platform is expected to enable Creditchek to develop products that better reflect the realities of African borrowers and lenders, while giving financial institutions access to richer data and more sophisticated tools for making credit decisions.
Why Uganda, why now?
Uganda represents a strategically important market for Creditchek’s East African expansion.
The country has emerged as one of the region’s fastest-growing startup and fintech ecosystems. In 2025, Ugandan startups attracted approximately $30 million in venture funding, more than seven times the previous year and making Uganda the second-largest destination for startup funding in East Africa, behind Kenya.
But the opportunity extends well beyond venture capital.
Uganda has developed one of Africa’s most active mobile-money ecosystems. By 2025, the country had 34.6 million active mobile-money subscribers, compared with approximately 24 million bank accounts, highlighting the extent to which financial activity has moved beyond traditional banking channels.
The World Bank’s latest financial inclusion data also shows that 67.7% of Ugandan adults had a mobile money account in 2024, while 70.6% had made or received a digital payment.
Digital lending is growing alongside this infrastructure. According to the International Monetary Fund, Uganda had approximately 250 fintech companies, with micro-credit and digital lending accounting for a significant portion of the ecosystem. The IMF also reports that loan disbursements and repayments increased by 121.7% and 139.0%, respectively, year-on-year as of December 2024.
This creates a market where the next generation of financial services will increasingly depend on the ability to turn large volumes of fragmented digital financial activity into reliable credit intelligence.
That is precisely where Creditchek sees its opportunity.
Building the infrastructure behind Africa’s next generation of lenders
For Creditchek, the Algosys acquisition is not simply a geographic expansion.
It is a strategic step towards building a full-stack lending infrastructure platform for Africa.
Today, lenders often rely on multiple disconnected providers for core banking, credit bureau information, income verification, identity verification, loan management, collections and other parts of the lending lifecycle.
Creditchek intends to bring more of these capabilities together.
By combining core banking infrastructure, credit intelligence, income intelligence, identity intelligence and lending technology, Creditchek aims to give financial institutions a more complete view of borrowers and the tools required to make faster and more informed lending decisions.
The result is expected to be a more localised underwriting model—one that understands how consumers and businesses actually transact within each market rather than relying solely on traditional financial histories.
This is particularly important in markets such as Uganda and the rest of East Africa, where mobile money has become a critical part of the financial system and where a large portion of economic activity may not be reflected in conventional banking data.
A strategic East African launchpad
The acquisition also strengthens Creditchek’s broader East African expansion strategy.
Earlier this year, Creditchek raised $600,000 to accelerate the expansion of its financial data infrastructure across East Africa after achieving profitability in Nigeria.
The company plans to expand its coverage across markets including Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, with plans to extend its infrastructure to francophone markets.
Uganda provides a strategic entry point into this expansion because of its growing fintech ecosystem, strong digital financial adoption and the opportunity to build directly on an existing network of financial institutions.
With Algosys already serving 22 financial institutions, Creditchek gains not only technology but also a significant operational foothold in the Ugandan financial ecosystem.
“East Africa is not one market; every country has its own financial behaviour, data sources, regulatory environment and lending dynamics,” said Lionel Orishane, CTO and Co-founder of Creditchek. “Our approach is therefore not to take a Nigerian product and simply deploy it in Uganda. We want to build locally relevant infrastructure that understands each market while giving lenders access to a common technology layer across Africa.”
Supporting Uganda’s digital economy ambitions
The acquisition comes at a time when Uganda is pursuing an ambitious transformation of its economy.
Under the government’s Tenfold Growth Strategy, Uganda aims to expand its economy from approximately $50 billion to $500 billion by 2040, with science, technology and innovation—including ICT and digital transformation—identified among the key drivers of this transformation.
A deeper, more efficient financial system will be critical to that ambition.
As more businesses and individuals move into the digital economy, financial institutions will need better infrastructure to assess risk, extend credit, and serve customers who may not have traditional financial histories.
Creditchek believes the combination of Algosys’ local infrastructure and Creditchek’s financial intelligence capabilities can help address this gap.
What the acquisition means for Algosys
Algosys will continue to serve its existing customers as a Creditchek subsidiary.
Existing products and services will continue to operate, while customers will progressively benefit from Creditchek’s technology, infrastructure and product capabilities.
The companies will also explore opportunities to introduce additional financial intelligence and lending capabilities to Algosys’ existing customer base.
“We are excited about what this next chapter means for Algosys,” said Innocent Bigega, Founder of Algosys. “Joining Creditchek gives Algosys access to a broader technology platform and resources while allowing us to continue building for the financial institutions we already serve. Together, we can build significantly more powerful infrastructure for lenders in Uganda and beyond.”
