Paylend, a Kenyan fintech startup, has announced that it has raised Ksh. 226 million (USD 2 million) seed investment from Next Chymia Consulting HK, a blockchain and consultancy company. The secured investment will help Paylend grow its operations in the Kenyan market and open new markets in Tanzania, Zambia and Nigeria as part of its 3-year growth plan.
Since its inception in 2019, Paylend has digitized over 10,000 SMEs and growing with its users enjoying various services including access to credit for products and services and crowdfunding tools. The company aims to support MSMEs across Africa to solve the problem of access to continuous capital while bridging the consumer data gap by connecting consumers to products and services. Paylend’s model enables last mile consumer data collection that allows for a thorough understanding of consumer needs as it creates value for the SMEs ecosystem.
“I believe in impact driven solutions. For a very long time, MSMEs have experienced stunted growth due to lack of efficient business tools or lack of funds. With Paylend, we are able to turn this around by helping these businesses access affordable credit quicker thus allowing them to have liquidity thus ensuring business continuity. Additionally, we form alliances with strategic partners with similar goals to present business tools that ease operations of these MSMEs,” said Eliutherius Juma, CEO, Paylend.
Paylend is an Adanian Labs startup, a Pan African smart technologies venture studio with a mission to build, nurture and scale 300 impact driven tech startups across Africa.
“We are elated to see the progress that Paylend is making and how it is impacting MSMEs, which is one of the most off grid sectors when it comes to digital transformation and financial inclusion. At Adanian Labs our mission is to nurture innovative solutions and support innovators like Juma with the necessary resources including tech development, technical capacity, go to market strategies, team mentorship and training as well as access to partnerships and resources,” said Bendon Murgor, CTO, Adanian Labs.
Kenji Sasaki, the CEO of Next Chymia Consulting HK had this to say on the partnership, “We are absolutely delighted to partner and support Paylend. Our vision is to ensure that no one is left behind in Africa when it comes to access to technology that can potentially facilitate wealth creation. We believe in the power of technology in transforming communities, and Paylend’s model is doing that at a micro level, which is where a lot of work is needed if we are to drive digitization.”