Kenyan start-up, Churpy, has secured a Ksh114.8 million (USD1 million) seed funding in a bid to expand its operations across the continent.
Nairobi-based company, Business Angel Network, Stripe, and Unicorn Growth Capital participated in the seed round following a Ksh11.4 million pre-seed contribution by Antler East Africa.
Churpy, a fintech company, helps Small and Medium Scale Businesses (SMEs) manage the debt owed to them by their customers. This is through their platform which automates the processes of balancing invoices and payments.
The company's co-founder, Kenneth Mukuna, noted that the move is aimed at scaling their operations to countries regarded as technology hubs in Africa.
"We are hiring more people as we plan to enter Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, which are the hubs into their (respective) regions. We are also putting finances into product development as we plan to scale our offering," he stated.
Mukuna affirmed that SMEs benefited from the software-based platform that helps businesses to get immediate payment for goods delivered.
"SMEs have a huge financing gap. They are the suppliers to these big companies and need capital to keep taking raw materials to their other clients."
"Usually, they need collateral to access loans from banks and wait for approval to access capital to keep their business going."
"What we are doing is ensuring that they get paid not long after they deliver goods to partner enterprises for a 0.5% origination fee. Once their invoice matures, we get paid,” Mukuna added.
Mukuna, together with John Kiptum, founded the company in 2021 as part of a seed accelerator program by Antler East Africa.
Churpy joins a growing list of startups that have received millions in seed funding in order to expand their operations across the continent.
