South African Fintech Startup Akiba Digital raises $1.1m pre-seed funding

South African Fintech startup Akiba Digital has announced it raised over $1.1m in a pre-seed funding round led by Expert DOJO and Oui Capital. Other participants in the round include Basecamp Fund, Soma Capital, Hustle Fund, Future Africa, LoftyInc, a former PayPal executive, and a handful of angel investors.

Akiba Digital was founded in 2017 with its focus on eliminating the barriers to entry to enable small businesses to unlock financing through their lending partners. The startup enables lenders to better extend capital to small businesses and individuals.

Through its alternative datasets, Akiba Digital provides inclusive scores that allow lenders to score people and small businesses. The startup which is already growing its revenues by 5X month-on-month has also launched an SME platform called Insyts that allows SMEs in need of funding to apply for business financing seamlessly and monitor their financial health on one platform.

Tebogo Mokwena, chief executive officer (CEO) of Akiba Digital speaking on the funding said that the startup intends to scale its service across the African market in the coming years.

“The fundraiser will also help us assess other African markets that we are looking to scale into”.

“Our goal is to be in 10+ African markets in two to three years, enabling millions of small businesses and individuals to access better financing through our alternative scoring. Longer-term we want to scale into South America and ultimately be one of Africa’s unicorns to IPO by 2027” said Tebogo.

The cash will be used by Akiba Digital to grow its market share in South Africa and connect over 20,000 SMEs to lenders through its ecosystem.