Kenyan fintech startup, Zanifu raises $1 million in seed funding
Zanifu, a Kenyan fintech providing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) access to working capital through short-term equity financing, has raised $1 million in seed funding.
The round included the participation of Launch Africa Ventures, Sayani Investments, Saviu Ventures and several angel investors from Kenya and Nigeria, bringing the startup’s total funding to $1.2 million. Steve Biko and Sebastian Mithika founded Zanifu in 2017 and launched the financing business a year later in 2018.
To date, the company has provided 85,000 working capital loans to 7,000 Kenyan companies totaling more than US$13 million. “We help FMCG retailers, especially those that are too small to qualify for typical bank financing.”
The only option available to these SMEs was digital consumer loans, which are not necessarily suitable. “We are filling an important gap in the market by providing equity financings that enable small businesses to grow their sales by more than 40%,” said Steve Biko, co-founder and COO of Zanifu.
Merchants can upload information such as purchase history to Zanifu’s credit app, which the fintech algorithm evaluates before issuing a credit limit. Retailers have up to one month to repay the loan at an interest rate of 3 once it has been accepted.5 to 5%.
After a successful round of financing, Zanifu wants to expand to Ghana and Uganda. The funds will be used to expand the startup’s platforms and increase the number of MSMEs supported with 15,000 FMCG traders.
