HAVAÍC joins pre-series A round to expand Tanda

Cape Town-headquartered venture capital firm HAVAÍC has completed its third investment in Kenyan fintech Tanda. The investment from the firm’s $20 million HAVAÍC Universum Core African Fund is part of an ongoing pre-series A round in partnership with three other investors, including DFS Lab.

Since its launch in 2018, Tanda has built one of Africa’s largest open agent networks accessible to all financial service providers, simplified how people and businesses transact, and opened up the ecosystem so other developers can layer additional solutions.

Over the past four years, the company has processed over four million transactions and served more than 30 000 businesses, 800 000 people, and over 100 developers, including Twiga Foods and Bento.

With HAVAÍC’s ongoing support, Tanda is poised to continue solving two of Africa’s most significant growth challenges – digitising retail payments to mobilise faster, cheaper, and more convenient transactions and providing small businesses and unbanked Africans with access to vital financial services like financing, savings, and wealth management.

The investment enables the company to invest in key strategic partners, accelerate product development, and scale in Kenya and East Africa over the next 15 months.

Added to that, Tanda is rolling out a new brand identity to better represent its developing product portfolio, including:

• Tanda Trader: an app for businesses to accept payments, sell digital products, and access financing;
• Tanda Pocket: a virtual wallet with digital cards to spend, track finances, and budget; and
• Tanda I/O: an API library that simplifies how businesses collect and allocate payments across agents, mobile networks, and utility service providers.

The investment is preceded by two prior rounds in 2020 and 2019 when HAVAÍC was the first investor to back Tanda.

Tanda founder and chief executive Geoffrey Mulei comments, “Our new products and growing distribution will open up opportunities for Tanda and our ecosystem partners to continue solving challenges for the majority of Africans locked out of the formal financial services ecosystem. We also look forward to deepening our customer relationships and growing into new and exciting African markets.”

“Tanda is a huge win for tech companies in Africa,” adds Rob Heath, partner at HAVAÍC. “With no access to financial services, people and merchants in Africa deal almost exclusively in cash. Tanda’s tech enables them to pay and receive cash in exchange for digital services that would otherwise have been out of reach.”

“We are so pleased our journey with Tanda continues. And we cannot wait to see what the future holds,” concludes Heath.

The announcement follows HAVAÍC’s recent investments in FinAccess, ShopEx, and Talk360, joining the VC’s thriving portfolio of 17 early-stage, high-potential African technology companies.

HAVAÍC’s portfolio companies now serve a combined five million customers in over 180 countries across the globe. In 2021, the portfolio raised $110 million in fresh capital and increased revenue by 160%. To date, HAVAÍC has achieved four international exits, delivering annualised returns far exceeding its 30% annual target.

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