Technology innovation startup Wakandi has launched a Series A fundraising round that seeks to bag $50 million (Sh6.4 billion) in three months as the firm eyes expanding its footprint in Kenya and within neighbouring nations Uganda and Tanzania.
The firm, which has Norwegian roots, trades as a financial aggregator designed to offer formal fiscal services to local cooperatives and microfinance institutions.
“Wakandi has already invested more than $25 million to get to where we are today, and we're going to escalate the growth now by raising another $50 million,” Wakandi’s chief operation officer (COO) Terje Width said.
The company runs a mobile app that aids in the administrative functions of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Saccos) and other related institutions, including paperless onboarding of new members and preparation of regulatory filings.
Mr Width, who spoke during the formal launch of the fundraiser in Nairobi on Tuesday, said the firm intends to grow its current portfolio of 200 supported entities by over 10-fold within the next three years.
“Our whole business idea is about growing together with the cooperatives and the Saccos, and so the system is built for them. So, we’re now at this stage where we’ve been growing consciously together and we’re now at about 200 Saccos that we’re operating around and we will grow that tenfold within the next three years,” said Mr Width.
“And this is why we are looking now to do this capital raise, because we’ve learnt the need and we’ve learnt what we need to do and we have the partnerships and references. Now we can put on the speed and to do that we will need to raise more capital,” he added.
The firm, which started operations six years ago in the three East African neighbouring nations, says it has since inception injected a total of $25 million in capital.
A spot check on its official website indicates that during the initial stages of operations, Wakandi received funding of unspecified value from the Norwegian government under various programmes run by ‘Innovation Norway’ – a State-owned national development bank.
The COO also hinted at expanding operations to other African markets in coming years.
“For now we’re very focused on Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, learning and adjusting, and then the idea is to put this across the continent to open up more countries,” he noted.
