Kenya’s embedded finance fintech Pezesha seeks to bridge as it expands into Nigeria, Rwanda and Francophone Africa following an $11 million pre-Series A equity-debt round led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II with participation from Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund and Cardano blockchain builder Input Output Global (IOG). The round also included a $5 million debt from Talanton and Verdant Capital Specialist Funds.
Pezesha has built a scalable digital lending infrastructure that allows both traditional and non-traditional finance institutions to offer working capital to MSMEs.
Pezesha said it is currently working with more than 20 partner companies that have enabled it to extend loans to over 100,000 businesses to date. It expects this number to grow before the end of the year as an additional 10 companies integrate with its infrastructure. The fintech can extend loans of up to $10,000 at single-digit interest rates, and a repayment period of one year.
Pezesha plans to create a $100 million financing opportunity each year for businesses by tapping local and international banking institutions, high-net-worth individuals, and decentralized finance.
The fintech plans to open more lending opportunities for women entrepreneurs who continue to be locked out by the formal banking sector.
Pezesha is dedicated to solving Africa’s working capital problem through its robust lending infrastructure, and this investment will allow them to deepen the range of financial products offering especially to women owned MSMEs.