Ozow Partners with Lula to Add SME Funding in Checkout

In Short

Ozow has partnered with Lula in South Africa to let Ozow merchants apply for business funding inside Ozow’s platform, with potential amounts surfaced using transaction history.

What Happened: Ozow and Lula SME Funding Partnership

Ozow says it has partnered with LULA to expand access to funding for small and medium-sized businesses.

The setup adds a funding application channel directly inside Ozow’s merchant experience. Merchants that already use Ozow to accept payments can start an application without leaving the platform.

Lula will handle the assessment and fulfilment. That means Lula will review the application, decide whether to approve it, and provide the capital.

Ozow’s role is to surface potential funding amounts using merchants’ transaction history. In plain terms, the platform uses past payment volumes as a signal of how much a business might be able to borrow.

Why It Matters

For many SMEs, funding is hard to access because lenders often lack reliable data on revenue and cash flow. Payment platforms can help close that gap because they see real sales activity, not just self-reported numbers.

Embedding finance inside a payments product can also reduce drop-off. Instead of filling forms across multiple sites, merchants can apply in the same place they manage collections and payouts.

For Ozow, this adds a lending and cash-advance style value proposition without becoming a lender itself. For Lula, it is a distribution channel to reach more businesses that already have digital payment histories.