Mines was founded in 2013 by a small group of computer scientists working on an artificial intelligence research project at Stanford University. It gives access to credit for unbanked and underbanked populations in Sub-Saharan Africa mainly, but also in Latin America and South-East Asia. While the Company early on acquired a small micro-finance bank in Nigeria to be able to distribute loans and operate without being restricted by regulators, it built a B2B2C platform that enterprise partners use to deliver loans.