ImaliPay a Fintech for the gig economy launches in South Africa
Platform for financial services for gig economy workers ImaliPay has made South Africa its third major African market, following Nigeria and Kenya, with the goal of assisting more African gig economy workers in improving their financial security and shaping their journey to financial freedom.
Tatenda Furusa and Sanmi Akinmusire co-founded ImaliPay in 2020 to provide both new and existing gig workers or freelancers with the ability to seamlessly save their income and receive in-kind loans through a buy now, pay later model tied to their trade.
As gig workers save money or repay loans on time, they build a credit history, which will allow them to access more formal financial services in the future. Workers on ImaliPay’s platform can now earn 3-5 times more thanks to the company’s buy-now-pay-later services.
The startup raised some funding in March and has used some of that money to launch operations in South Africa. It already operates in Nigeria and Kenya, and since its inception in 2020, it has powered over 400,000 litres of fuel and enabled 30 million trips on ride-sharing platforms. It has also enabled gig workers to save money and obtain affordable insurance.
“There are over four million gig workers in South Africa alone,” said Alexandria Akena, group partnerships manager at ImaliPay. “We want to encourage more inclusive financial participation for all of them.” We are entering South Africa with a strong ecosystem of marketplace vendors to serve our customers across the country.”
To provide customers with a seamless payments experience, the startup will work with Stitch as its payments and open banking partner.
“Thanks to Stitch, ImaliPay workers can easily make payments on the tools they purchased once they start earning revenue.” “By linking their bank accounts, Stitch makes it simple for them to pay into ImaliPay with a single click,” Akena explained.
ImaliPay is launching in South Africa with a number of vendor partners, initially focusing on their buy-now-pay-later services, with savings to follow. Gig workers can use ImaliPay to buy petrol, smartphones, airtime, and other tools through a WhatsApp chatbot, and they will receive vouchers that can be used to buy the tools they need from partner vendors.
