Kenyan fintech Pezesha secures Ksh.1.3B funding to expand across Africa

The company was founded in 2017 by Hilda Moraa and offers a business-to-business (B2B) digital lending infrastructure towards affordable working capital for financially excluded SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The round was a mix of Ksh.720 million ($6 million) equity and Ksh.600 million ($5 million) debt.

Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II led the funding round, with such partners as Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund and Input Output Global (IOG), among others.

“We are excited about attracting institutional investors led by the Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II to harness our growth plans and push our mission to the next level. We are equally excited that WWBCP II intentionally invests in women, which allows us to cement inclusivity in our growth plans as a sustainable path towards our vision of building Africa’s MSME lending infrastructure,” Ms. Moraa said on Tuesday.

She noted that the new capital will enable Pezesha to expand its embedded finance solutions in its core markets and grow into new markets within Sub Saharan Africa.

“This round has brought together strategic investors who underpin the fundamentals of financial inclusion in their thesis and we believe these combined experiences will help us accelerate and enable millions of MSMEs across African value chains to access affordable working capital,” she stated.

Pezesha’s API platforms enable MSMEs to access funding easily by matching business owners with its lending partners such as banks and microfinance institutions. 

Additionally, its credit-scoring APIs enable MSMEs to receive real-time loan offers to purchase stock and pay later. Pezesha also offers financial literacy courses and debt counselling to MSMEs who do not qualify for loans in order to improve their credit scoring and ensure responsible borrowing as they grow within the Pezesha financial ladder.

With footprints in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana, the fintech says it has so far offered productive credit to tech-enabled platforms such as e-commerce outlet Twiga Foods, online retailerJumia, as well as retail and distribution startup Marketforce, among others.