3Line rebrands from card management to a full-service fintech company

Pioneering Nigerian fintech company, 3Line Card Management Limited, is undergoing a significant rebrand and will now be known as 3Line. In previous years, 3Line has built a strong reputation for its card management solution and has a proven track record of facilitating e-payments in the Nigerian fintech space. The move to rebrand is driven by a combination of factors including the need to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving industry, better represent their expanded product portfolio and project a more modern image that reflects their evolving vision.  According to Chibuzor Sibigem, director, Medusa Business, “The name 3Line Card Management Limited tied us to cards so much that it pushed the other services we offer behind the scenes and people weren’t seeing us for who we are. Now as 3Line, it’s clearer that this is a technology company and not a card scheme.” 

A New Era

3Line was launched in 2007 as a pioneer local payment card scheme in Nigeria. It is currently run by the CEO, Femi Omogbenigun. The company started by offering a local payment card solution to the wide financial services market in Nigeria. According to the founder, Ade-Ojo, the idea for 3Line came from travelling to other regions and seeing the efficiency of having a local payment card. The idea behind 3Line was to create a card brand that all the local banks in Nigeria could use and thus the initial, ‘3Line Card Management Limited’ company was born. This was a novel field in Nigeria at the time and it started 3Line’s futuristic journey into fintech.

3Line has stopped being a card management company for over a decade and the previous image of just being a card scheme undersold its current services. The company has thrived for 17 years by innovating and adapting while remaining scalable. Now  3Line has consolidated its initial service offering of six products (Visum, Gravity, Medusa, Magtipon, BreezePay, Freedom Network) into 3 major products; Gravity, Medusa, and Freedom.

• Freedom is a payment card that banks, fintechs, and individuals can use for local transactions.
• Medusa aka Medusa Business is an end-to-end platform that brings efficiency and simplicity to merchant banking operations, popularly used by SMEs, enterprises, banks, etc.
• Gravity is an agency banking solution that makes it possible for agents to perform transactions from account opening to loan disbursement on behalf of banks using a POS, Mobile device, Web, or USSD. 

3Line has transformed into an infrastructure-as-a-service so other banks and fintechs can leverage their solutions and payment infrastructure to power and monitor their transactions and terminals.  Speaking about this Omogbenigun says “Since we’ve always been self-funded, we needed to change our focus to more or less becoming an infrastructure-as-a-service and that’s where we are now. What we pride ourselves in is the amount of innovation we have brought into the fintech space through our deep understanding of the payment ecosystem in Nigeria. This deep understanding has helped us to build platforms and solutions that are fit for purpose, very scalable, and stable,” he says.

Now with these three major products, the company caters to these customer categories: SMEs, enterprises, and personal. These products will allow 3Line to connect more effectively with its target audience and stakeholders. Stakeholders will benefit from enhanced transparency and trust in their partnerships with 3Line. It will also provide clarity to interested customers and foster stronger connections with the company’s offerings.

What’s ahead for 3Line Limited

“The future of 3Line is to be the preferred payment partner to all of the banks and fintechs,” says Sibigem. With satisfied partners ranging from traditional banks like FCMB and Stanbic to fintech providers like Opay, PalmPay, and NowNow, this rebrand positions the company for continued success in the dynamic Nigerian fintech landscape.

According to Omogbenigun 3Line’s strength lies in its workforce and the reliable services they’ve built. “People who use our platform get the highest possible success rate you can get. We’ve done this by putting everything together to build a platform that has a huge level of redundancy, multiple connections to different processors, and zero downtime in the last three years” he says. 

This rebrand signifies 3Line’s commitment to growth and leadership within the Nigerian fintech space. The company now aims to become a one-stop shop for simple, fast, and reliable payment solutions for its partners. By shedding its legacy brand and embracing a future-oriented identity, 3Line positions itself for continued success and innovation.

To learn more about 3Line, check out their inspiring journey here or visit their website here.