Pezesha, a pan-African fintech company building scalable lending infrastructure for SMEs and institutions, today announced the close of a seven-figure growth funding round led by GreenHouse Capital (GHC).
In addition to GHC’s investment, Pezesha received on-lending liquidity support from GHC’s sister company Venture Garden Group (VGG). These financing milestones will support Pezesha’s continued growth across Africa and its mission to expand access to affordable working capital for SMEs.
Pezesha is solving Africa’s $82 billion working capital and trade finance access problems by enabling non-traditional finance institutions to offer working capital to SMEs using Pezesha’s lending infrastructure.
The company has built robust APIs to originate quality SMEs and original credit scoring models that allow capital to flow efficiently and productively. Pezesha’s new partnership with VGG will expand the capital available for Pezesha and its institutional partners to lend to SMEs. Pezesha previously raised capital from Consonance and Seedstars.
Hilda Moraa, CEO and Founder of Pezesha, commented, “we are delighted to have GreenHouse Capital join the Pezesha family. We have aligned in vision as well as our commitment to solving the working capital challenges that are preventing African SMEs from achieving their full growth potential.
“GHC’s investment will catapult our growth by enabling us to scale our existing partnerships with the likes of Twiga Foods, Jumia, Marketforce, and Popote Pay, among others. More so, the investment will unlock our vision of building the operating system to power embedded finance in Africa”
Ruby Nimkar, Principal at GreenHouse Capital, added, “Pezesha is breaking down barriers to SME financing by taking an ecosystem approach to the problem of access to capital. Their embedded finance model is truly groundbreaking, and we have full confidence in Hilda and the talented team at Pezesha to take their model into new markets and continuously close the SME financing gap across Africa.”
Bunmi Akinyemiju, CEO of Venture Garden Group, commented, “Pezesha’s innovative model is driving capital to the African SMEs that need it the most. We are excited to be partnering with Pezesha to expand their access to funds that they can use for their on-lending liquidity.”
The fintech startup has scaled its lending infrastructure in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria and is planning to launch in Uganda in September of 2021.
