Uganda’s gnuGrid raises $612k seed round to Delve into fintech space

Ugandan solar startup gnuGrid has announced the increase of its seed funding round to $612,500 as it accelerates plans to offer Fintech services in the region.

gnuGrid was launched in 2019 by the duo of David Opio and James Dailey. The startup aims to streamline and automate the highly fragmented solar industry in Uganda.

The startup leverages its AI-powered sensors to monitor solar systems and collect data on power usage which is used by solar companies to tailor service delivery.

gnuGrid’s AI-powered system enables digital payments, predictive analytics, customer profiling, and data management, helping solar companies operate efficiently at a lower cost.

Co-founder of gnuGrid David Opio speaking on the funding said that gnuGrid’s system can onboard millions of consumers in Uganda and Africa.

“gnuGrid has the system necessary to onboard the millions of unbanked/tier four consumers in Uganda – all of Africa, actually.

“It is the first-ever local credit reference bureau licensed by the Bank of Uganda to provide credit reference services to enable lenders to know how borrowers repay their loans.

“The US$10 million raised will go into scaling the CRB services to the last mile informal financial institutions, collecting data from several credit providers, expanding the data hosting infrastructure, enhancing data security and protection, onboarding more staff members, and scaling the CRB solution to other Africa countries, starting with Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and Zambia,” said Opio.

The seed funding is being used to set up data hosting servers and a state-of-the-art customer care service center, onboard staff, build the CRB platform and implement sales and marketing strategies as the startup now plans to become a licensed credit reference bureau to help many informal financial and formal institutions de-risk their investment and build reputational collateral for the last-mile credit consumers or borrowers.