Churpy, a Kenyan fintech startup, has secured a $1 million seed round led by Unicorn Growth Capital.
Also participating were Antler East Africa, Nairobi’s business angel network and a group of Rally Cap LPs. The round will be used to support expansion to Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.
Founded in 2020 by John Kiptum and Kennedy Mukuna, Churpy helps businesses manage B2B receivable operations securely & scalably. It has developed a SaaS-based payment and invoice reconciliation product.
It targets the many local companies that complete these processes manually. Its API connects them to banks with a significant local presence including Citibank, Sidian, Stanbic and NCBA.
It recently received a boost when Trade Development Bank provided $15 million to Churpy to lend to SMEs through its banking partners.
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,” Churpy co-founder and CEO, John Kiptum said.
“SMEs have a huge financing gap. They are the suppliers of these large companies and need capital to continue to bring raw materials to their other customers.
“Usually they need collateral to access loans from banks and wait for approval to access capital to keep their business going. What we do is make sure that they are paid not long after they have delivered goods to partner companies, at an origination fee of 0.5%. Once their bill is due, we get paid,” says Mukuna.
Unicorn Growth Capital founding partner and CEO Barbara Iyayi said: “It is clear that B2B payment operations are significantly under-penetrated and ripe for modernization and disruption globally.
“We are excited to partner with the Churpy team as the first mover in the market. Churpy is the only available end-to-end platform that provides accounts receivable automation, an invoice marketplace and reconciliation with integrated B2B payments specific to its markets.
“They are well-positioned to be a critical partner to businesses and lenders in Africa, and can effectively address the significant credit gap faced by SMEs for supplier finance and working capital.”
