Orange Digital Ventures is among the backers of PayJoy, which is described as a “digital platform that allows people with limited or no access to credit to pay for a smartphone in regular instalments”.

PayJoy raised $18 million, comprising $8.5 million equity investment led by Union Square Ventures, $4 million of venture debt from Western Technology Investment, and $5.65 million of private lending capital.

Orange said that PayJoy’s platform “provides a unique and disruptive way of making smartphone ownership more affordable for the next billion consumers”. It includes device management software installed on the devices to make them “software-enabled collateral”, enabling third-party institutional lenders to finance the device upfront and consumers to pay in monthly instalments.

Pierre Louette, Orange’s CEO Delegate in charge of Orange Digital Ventures, said: “This investment in PayJoy further demonstrates the Orange group’s ambition to support and accelerate the digital evolution of our customers gobally, and in particular for our 110 million customers in Africa and the Middle East”.

“PayJoy illustrates our belief at Orange that disruptive ways of thinking can often provide surprisingly simple solutions for breaking down previously unsurmountable barriers,” he continued.