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Dubai-based FinTech Credable has rebranded to _able, in a sign that the company’s identity has evolved from credit enablement into a full-spectrum financial infrastructure platform serving emerging markets across Africa.
The rebrand reflects how far the company has grown since its founding. What began as a credit-focused business has matured into what _able describes as the “operating layer” for capital providers and distribution partners.
The platform now enables banks, mobile money operators, FinTechs, marketplaces, and other digital platforms to deploy credit, savings and other financial products at scale. Headquartered in Dubai, with an operational hub in Nairobi, a market and innovation hub in Dar es Salaam, and a technology and intelligence hub in Pune, the company supports partners across multiple African markets and the rebrand is meant to reflect that.
The company says its original name, Credable, was rooted in crēdibilis, Latin for “worthy of belief” and the same etymological root as the word “credit”. But as the company’s remit broadened, leadership felt the name no longer captured the full scope of what it had become.
“Over time, it became clear that our role was no longer simply about determining who is credible. It was about building the infrastructure that enables financial access at scale,” said Nadeem Juma, co-founder and CEO of _able.
The new name, _able, drawn from the Latin habilis, meaning capable and ready, is intended to signal movement from belief to enablement. The underscore, its leadership argues, is deliberate: representing the connective layer the company positions itself as, sitting “between capital and distribution, infrastructure and partners, access and outcomes.”
Only 6% of Africa’s population has access to formal credit, a gap _able’s founders attribute not to a lack of demand but to broken infrastructure. “Today, capital sits on one side and the people who need it on the other, and the operating layer to solve that never existed. We are that operating system, and at its core is the infrastructure and decisioning intelligence that makes capital deployment sustainable and profitable, not just possible,” said Jad Abbas, co-founder and CFO of _able.
The platform serves two sides of the market: capital providers, including banks, development finance institutions, credit funds and institutional investors who deploy capital into managed digital credit portfolios; and channel partners such as mobile money operators, FinTechs and card issuers who embed financial services into existing customer journeys.
“Our mission remains unchanged,” Juma said. “We believe credit is one of the most powerful tools of economic empowerment. Our ambition is to enable access to credit and savings for hundreds of millions of people globally.”
CTO and co-founder Michael Tarimo, whose background includes helping build Tanzania’s national health information system, adds, “We are here to do the things others call impossible, and to do them reliably at scale.”
As _able enters its next phase, the company says it will continue expanding its infrastructure, intelligence and portfolio management capabilities across emerging markets, building toward a vision of making meaningful financial access simple and within reach for hundreds of millions of people.
