Kuunda Secures $7.5M Pre-Series A Funding to Expand Embedded Finance

Kuunda Co-Founders: Andrew Milne, Samuel Brawerman, and Morné van der Westhuizen

Kuunda, a UK-headquartered Tanzania-focused B2B fintech solutions provider that provides working-capital solutions, has raised $7.5 million in pre-Series A funding to expand across Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa (MENA), starting with Egypt.

The funding round saw participation from repeat investors, financial retail service providers, and other venture capital firms, including Portugal Gateway Fund, Seedstars Africa Ventures, 4Di Capital, Accion Ventures, Nedbank, and E4E Africa.

Founded in 2018 by Andy Milne, Sam Brawerman, and Morne van der Westhuizen, Kuunda helps partner companies design and manage financial services strategies by embedding credit products into their digital payment platforms. Its technology allows users to access short-term liquidity products such as airtime top-ups, mobile money float loans, stock financing, and merchant cash advances.

The funding comes as Kuunda looks beyond East Africa to tap into Egypt’s fast-growing digital payments and e-commerce markets. With over $3 billion in loans already disbursed for bank partners, the company is betting that its “embedded liquidity” model, which allows banks and digital platforms to offer credit directly within their ecosystems, can unlock access to finance for millions of small businesses and agents across the continent.

“We are unlocking access to finance for Africa’s productive class – the agents, merchants, and small businesses that are the backbone of these economies, whilst helping consumers build up resilience by accessing credit when they need it the most,” said Milne, Kuunda’s co-founder & co-CEO.

With the new capital, Kuunda plans to deepen its partnerships across Africa by extending services to e-commerce players and point-of-sale (PoS) network providers. It will also develop new financing tools to support micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Kuunda is targeting Egypt as its next frontier due to the country’s strong mobile money penetration and a $115.7 billion PoS market, with an expected annual growth rate of 8.3%. The company plans to partner with local e-commerce and PoS providers looking to embed lending products for merchants and users. Beyond Egypt, Kuunda aims to expand into Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Morocco.

“Across our markets, we repeatedly see agents, MSMEs, and consumers constrained by cashflow,” said Bruce Nsereko-Lule, General Partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures. “Kuunda’s embedded working-capital products unlock liquidity exactly where commerce happens – at the edge.” 

Milne acknowledges the challenges in scaling its embedded liquidity solution across regions. He cited regulatory approvals for products and tech integration of lending solutions with its partners’ infrastructure. As the company plans to scale into MENA, Milne admits that language differences and cultural complexities are bound to present hurdles to its expansion. 

The company will compete with established digital lending platforms like MNT Halan, Fawry, and Flend, which recently secured $3 million in seed funding to expand SME financing. Kuunda bets that its operational model will provide opportunities for the partnerships it needs to scale. 

Source: TechCabal