Tanda, Kenyan Agency Banking Startup Completes Pre-series A Round for Expansion
To speed up product development and client acquisition in Kenya and elsewhere, Kenyan agency banking as a service provider Tanda is now soliciting money through a pre-Series A round of fundraising.
Tanda, which was founded in 2018, enables store owners to access inventory on credit and serve as their clients’ access points for services including airtime, utility payments, banking, and insurance.
The platform brings together all of the major financial service providers, enabling agents to sell a variety of digital commodities while also supplying retailers with necessities. Additionally, it offers its agents unsecured credit.
The company has supported more than 30,000 businesses, 800,000 customers, and more than 100 developers over the last four years, including Twiga Foods and Bento, processing over four million transactions in total.
The latest investment, which comes after a seed round at the beginning of the year, is made by HAVAC, an existing investor, along with three other investors, including DFS Lab. Over the next 15 months, Tanda will use the funds to scale in Kenya and East Africa, accelerate product development, and invest in key strategic partners.
Tanda is also launching a new brand identity to better represent its expanding product portfolio, which includes Tanda I/O, an API library that makes it easier for companies to collect and distribute payments across agents, mobile networks, and utility service providers, Tanda Pocket, a virtual wallet with digital cards for spending, tracking finances, and budgeting, and Tanda Trader, an app for businesses to accept payments, sell digital products, and access financing.
“With the majority of Africans shut out of the official financial services ecosystem, Tanda and our ecosystem partners will have more opportunity to address problems as a result of our new products and expanding distribution. Geoffrey Mulei, the founder and CEO of Tanda, added, “We also look forward to strengthening our customer ties and expanding into new and interesting African markets.
According to Rob Heath, partner of HAVAC, “Tanda represents a significant gain for tech companies in Africa.” People and businesses in Africa nearly entirely conduct transactions in cash because they lack access to banking services. They can now trade cash for digital services that would otherwise be out of their grasp thanks to Tanda’s technology. We are overjoyed that our journey with Tanda goes on. And we eagerly anticipate what lies next.
Additionally, HAVAC’s recently invested in Talk360, ShopEx, and FinAccess.
