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In a groundbreaking move to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Salad Africa has partnered with multi-category delivery platform Glovo to launch Nigeria’s first embedded lending program tailored specifically for merchants on a digital marketplace.
The program, announced on April 24, will provide Glovo’s eligible partners with access to flexible working capital without the traditional bottlenecks associated with bank loans.
Through Salad Africa’s embedded lending infrastructure, merchants can now apply for loans ranging from N50,000 to over N100 million directly through the Glovo ecosystem.
Unlike conventional financial institutions, the new offering uses real-time sales data from the Glovo app to assess creditworthiness and determine eligibility, eliminating the need for collateral and streamlining the approval process.
“This partnership with Salad Africa is a game-changer,” said Kolawole Adeniyi, head of commercial at Glovo Nigeria. “We’re providing access to much-needed working capital directly within our ecosystem, making it easier and faster for our partners to scale. It ensures our merchants can unlock new opportunities without traditional barriers.”
Under the initiative, merchants who have been active on the Glovo platform for at least three months and meet key performance benchmarks will be invited to apply. Once approved, funds will be disbursed directly, with repayments made as a percentage of future sales, automatically processed through Glovo.
Chikodi Ukaiwe, CEO of Salad Africa, said the collaboration reflects both companies’ commitment to powering economic growth through financial inclusion.
“Supporting local businesses is at the heart of everything we do at Salad, so we’re thrilled to partner with Glovo,” Ukaiwe said. “Embedded finance is unlocking new channels of credit that simply weren’t available before. We’re proud to be making access to capital more seamless and timely for Glovo’s network of restaurants.”
The initiative is part of Glovo Local, the company’s global program supporting SMEs with visibility, marketing tools, training, and now, financial support.
SMEs currently account for 90% of the shops and restaurants on Glovo’s platform across 23 countries.
By combining Glovo’s platform reach with Salad Africa’s data-driven lending tools, the partnership aims to accelerate digital and economic inclusion for Nigerian SMEs, many of which struggle to access traditional financing.
Since launching its lending operations, Salad Africa has unlocked over $1.5 million in credit for more than 1,500 SMEs across the continent.
Glovo says it remains the only player in the industry offering this kind of embedded financing solution, reaffirming its commitment to being not just a marketplace, but a growth partner for small businesses.
