HAVAÍC, a Cape Town-based venture capital firm, has invested in Tanda, a Kenyan FinTech startup. VC firm HAVAC Universum Core African Fund is investing US$20 million as part of a pre-series A round with three other investors, including DFS Lab.
The Cape Town, South Africa-based VC firm HAVAÍC has made its third investment in the Kenyan FinTech company Tanda. DFS Lab and two other investors have joined the VC firm’s US$20 million HAVAÍC Universum Core African Fund in a pre-series A funding round.
With the ongoing support of HAVAÍC, Tanda is well-positioned to continue solving two of Africa’s most significant growth challenges: by digitizing retail payments to mobilize faster, cheaper, and more convenient transactions; and by giving small businesses and unbanked Africans access to vital financial services like financing, savings, and wealth management. By taking advantage of this chance, the company will be able to speed up the development of new products, grow its business in Kenya and East Africa, and form strategic partnerships over the next 15 months.
Read also: Kenyan company Solutech expands to eight other African countries
Tanda will release a new product
Furthermore, Tanda is launching a new brand identity to reflect more accurately the comprehensiveness of its offerings. Tanda I/O is an API library that automates the collection and distribution of payments across agents, mobile networks, and utility service providers; Tanda Pocket is a virtual wallet with digital cards that can be used to spend, track finances, and budget; and Tanda Trader is an app that enables businesses to accept payments, sell digital products, and access financing.
This is the third round of funding for Tanda. The first two rounds, in 2020 and 2019, were led by HAVAÍC, the company that first invested in Tanda.
Geoffrey Mulei, the founder and CEO of Tanda, says, “Our new products and increased distribution will open up chances for Tanda and our ecosystem partners to continue addressing problems for the vast majority of Africans locked out of the traditional financial services ecosystem. We also plan to get closer to our clients and move into some interesting new African markets.
Rob Heath, Partner at HAVAÍC, adds that “Tanda is a significant gain for IT firms in Africa.” People and businesses in Africa nearly entirely conduct transactions with cash because they lack access to banking services. They may now trade cash for digital services that would otherwise be out of their grasp thanks to Tanda’s technology. “We are overjoyed that our adventure with Tanda goes on. And we are eager to see what the future holds, “Heath says in his conclusion.”
The news follows HAVAÍC’s previous investments in FinAccess, ShopEx, and Talk360, which have now been added to the VC’s growing portfolio of 17 high-potential, early-stage African digital firms. The portfolio firms of HAVAÍC provide services to 5 million clients worldwide in more than 180 nations. The portfolio raised an additional US$110 million in 2021 and saw a 160% increase in revenue. So far, HAVAÍC has completed four overseas exits, which have given it annualized returns that are well above its goal of 30%.
A look at what the company does
Since its inception in 2018, Tanda has streamlined how consumers and companies interact, opened the ecosystem so that other developers may layer new solutions, and created one of Africa’s most extensive open agent networks available to all financial service providers. In the last four years, the company has handled more than 4 million transactions and worked with over 30,000 businesses, 800,000 consumers, and over 100 developers, such as Twiga Foods and Bento.
Tanda is a financial technology company that is aiming to improve the world by making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa to have access to digital financial services. Micro-retailers can use Tanda to get inventory credit and give their customers access to important services like airtime, utility payments, M-banking, and insurance.
Shopkeepers have historically served as the foundation of African communities. They provide more than 70% of the continent’s necessities, amounting to approximately $180 billion yearly. It is shocking to learn that despite being crucial to local economies, over 90% of micro-retailers have no credit history and no access to bank or MFI funding. Tanda wants to fill this funding gap and promote financial inclusion for low-income MSME businesses throughout the continent.
