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Beyond Capital finalises Tulaa seed round with $25k capital injection
Impact investment fund Beyond Capital has finalised its participation in Nairobi-based agritech and fintech startup Tulaa‘s seed round with a $25 000 capital injection.
Tulaa was founded in 2017 by CEO Hillary Miller-Wise (pictured above). The startup’s platform connects agricultural-input suppliers, financial service providers and commodity buyers with smallholder farmers.
In July last year, Miller-Wise announced on LinkedIn that her startup had closed a $627 000 seed round led by Canadian impact investor AHL Venture Partners. Beyond Capital — which invests in India and East Africa — along with Global Partnerships/Eleos Social Venture Fund were also involved in the round.
Tulaa provides small holder farmers in Kenya with access to inputs, credit and markets
In an email yesterday (4 March), Miller-Wise confirmed that while all the necessary documents were signed last week, Beyond Capital’s commitment of $25 000 was only concluded in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Beyond Capital operations associate and programme coordinator Mathilde Beniflah told Ventureburn yesterday (4 March) that Beyond Capital had invested $25 000 and that the Eckenstein Geigy Foundation would also match the investment.
In a statement last Monday (25 February) announcing the investment, Beyond Capital said its investment will be used to fund Tulaa’s continued expansion in Kenya and for the further development of Tulaa’s digital platform.
“We are expanding our inputs on credit service to more counties and value chains in Kenya. In addition, we will scale up our market linkage service to more farmers.
“Finally, we are investing in continued improvements to our data analytics, especially related to credit scoring and ‘smart matching’ of buyers and sellers on our platform, explained Miller-Wise.
Tulaa, she pointed out, has over 15 000 farmers on its platform and has sold about $500 000 in inputs.
Miller-Wise added that the percentage of the startup’s loan portfolio that is over 30 days due (termed as the portfolio of risk or PAR30) is about five percent of the total loan portfolio. According to the Inter-American Development Bank any loan portfolio with a portfolio of risk of above 10% would be cause for concern.
Read more: Kenyan fintech Tulaa closes $627k seed round led by AHL Ventures Partners
Featured image: Tulaa CEO and founder Hillary Miller-Wise ( Tulaa Technologies via Twitter)
