Kenyan FinTech Startup Paylend Raises $2 Million Seed Investment For Africa Expansion

Kenyan Fintech startup Paylend focused on providing access to finance and digitizing MSMEs in Kenya has raised $2 million dollars seed investment to grow its operation in the Kenyan market and open new markets in Tanzania, Zambia and Nigeria as part of its next 3 years growth plan.

Paylend, which was founded in 2019, secured the investment from Next Chymia Consulting HK Limited, an Asian based company that provides blockchain applications, consultancy services and training to global entities.

The funding will help support Paylend’s mission which is to support MSMEs across Africa solve the problem of access to continuous capital while bridging the consumer data gap by connecting consumers to products and services. The Start-up’s model enables last-mile consumer data collection that allows for a thorough understanding of consumer needs as it creates value for the SMEs ecosystem. It has so far digitized over 10,000 SMEs.

While commenting on the announcement, Eliutherius Juma, CEO, Paylend said: “I believe in impact-driven solutions. For a very long time, MSMEs have experienced stunted growth due to lack of efficient business tools or lack of funds. With Paylend, we can turn this around by helping these businesses access affordable credit quicker thus allowing them to have liquidity thus ensuring business continuity. Additionally, we form alliances with strategic partners with similar goals to present business tools that ease operations of these MSMEs,”

He added: “The value of the credit gap alone in sub-Saharan Africa is at $90 billion that requires an increase of over 350% service to close the gap. To tackle these challenges, Africa needs transformational interventions. The formal banking landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa supports around 20% of Africa’s bankable population with the majority of people excluded from access to finance and wealth creation, this is a massive opportunity for FinTech like Paylend.

Kenji Sasaki, the CEO of Next Chymia Consulting HK Limited stated: “We are absolutely delighted to partner and support Paylend. Our vision is to ensure that no one is left behind in Africa when it comes to access to technology that can potentially facilitate wealth creation. We believe in the power of technology in transforming communities, and Paylend’s model is doing that at a micro level, which is where a lot of work is needed if we are to drive digitization. We have seen first-hand the potential that the informal sector in Africa has in solving key social issues and we are excited to be able to support and create impact.”

29% of formal SMEs in Africa have access to loans, line of credit or overdraft. The numbers are significantly lower in the informal MSME sector that accounts for over 60% of businesses in the region.

Paylend is an Adanian Labs startup, a Pan African smart technologies venture studio with a mission to build, nurture and scale 300 impact-driven tech startups across Africa.