Kenyan startup Duhqa raises Ksh.236 million to expand across East Africa

The new round of funding has had participation from CrossFund, Roselake Ventures and Mo Angels in addition to existing investors including Techstars.

The startup was founded in 2021 by Victor Maina, Davis Angwenyi and Dudu Moilwa.

Duhqa plans to deploy proceeds from the seed funding to develop existing markets and avail more tech tools to its growing merchant network.

“Our goal is to address the gaps in African distribution logistics with the best in logistics, e-commerce, financing and data insights which are needed to build a better, leaner African distribution sector,” noted Victor Maina Duhqa CEO.

The new seed funding comes just seven months after the startup raised Ksh.17.7 million ($150,000) in pre-seed funding through Techstars accelerator program.

Duhqa is a business to business (B2B) retail tech platform that seeks to empower informal merchants on the continent to digitally source and pay for inventory, get delivery conveniently and access short-term financing.

The platform bolsters informal microstores known as Dukas by connecting them to manufacturers.

So far, the startup has onboarded over 5,000 merchants.

Duhqa works through third-party logistics providers with suppliers using the platform using dashboards to view delivery locations for their products, check key performance indicators and book merchandising.

Suppliers can also advertise and run marketing campaigns at shops, perform product giveaways and tap into merchandising revenue.