Akiba Digital team – a South African based Fintech, has decided to facilitate the access of funds for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), by connecting them to lenders through its ecosystem. It has set the pace for this to run effectively by closing a $1.1 million pre-seed round. This move is expected to grow the company’s market share in South Africa, and while at it, connect at least 20,000 SMEs. This was undertaken not only by its 3 co-founding members, but also by other FinTech experts and African Angel investors. Partners include: US-Accelerator – Expert DOJO, Nigerian VC Firm – Oui Capital, Basecamp Fund, Suma Capital, Hustle Fund, Future Africa, LoftyInc plus others.
What is the Company about?
In 2017, 3 co-founders – Tebogo Mokwena CEO and CTO, Kamegelo Kekana and Andile Maseko, came together with the idea of launching a savings app. Today, Akiba Digital Team is more than just a saving app.
Solving the problem of Financial Inclusion
As at 2018, Africa’s financial inclusion was at 43%. This means that at least 57% of the continent are either unbanked or underbanked. Included in this larger percent are individuals or SMEs who cannot access banking services because they have no creditworthy score.
Akiba Digital Team does claim that about 80% of small businesses and individuals in Africa face this problem. So as a solution, it is bridging the gap between the unbanked population and access to financial services.
How it plans to go about this? By the use of alternative scoring, doing an affordability analysis for customers of these SMEs, and providing actionable insights based on their user data.
Regarding expansion, the company is looking to spreading their tentacles to saturate the South American continent and be the only lamp on a hill to remain by 2027.
