Pezesha Raises $11M to Grow Lending Platform in Sub-Saharan Africa

Embedded finance FinTech Pezesha has raised $11 million in a pre-Series A funding round and plans to use the funds to scale operations in its core markets and expand into new markets in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The company offers a B2B digital lending infrastructure that is focused on helping its partners provide working capital to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that may otherwise be unable to access credit, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 30) press release. 

With Pezesha’s application programming interfaces (APIs), supply chains, cooperatives and eCommerce marketplaces can show real-time credit offers to merchants at the point of sale so that they can purchase stock and pay later. For any that do not qualify for these loans, Pezesha offers financial literacy courses and debt counseling, per the release. 

“Pezesha is democratizing financial services to the underserved [SMBs] through its infrastructure that has validated trust, rockstar team and scale,” said Pezesha Founder and CEO Hilda Moraa. “We are allowing distribution models for our partners to grow with little acquisition costs while increasing retention and profitability.” 

Headquartered in Kenya, Pezesha is currently also active in Uganda and Ghana and plans to expand to Nigeria and Rwanda, according to the company’s website. 

“This round has brought together strategic investors who underpin the fundamentals of financial inclusion in their thesis and we believe these combined experiences will help us accelerate and enable millions of [micro, small and medium enterprises] across African value chains to access affordable working capital,” Moraa said.

As PYMNTS reported in March, SMBs and entrepreneurs play a critical role in the overall development of most economies, particularly in emerging regions like Africa. 

Read more: Tailored Payments Solutions Unlock Growth for Underserved Self-Employed Segment in Africa 

While jump-starting a new business is hard enough for entrepreneurs, many of them face challenges when engaging with mainstream financial institutions, due to their atypical work profile and the absence of regular income.

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