HAVAÍC, Zedcrest Capital, DFS Lab, Victor Asemota and three other investors have invested an undisclosed amount in Kenyan agency banking startup Tanda.

Tanda has also secured key strategic partnerships with Mastercard and Interswitch which will further accelerate its growth.

The company’s expansion comes on the back of successfully pioneering and proving the viability of the interoperable agent and merchant model in Kenya, a model that has only been validated in West Africa prior to Tanda.

Rob Heath, Partner at HAVAÍC, said: “Tanda is solving one part of the very deep and complex problem of financial inclusion that is not only Kenyan, but a problem across all emerging and undeveloped markets. HAVAÍC believe that the wider Tanda team have the right mix of skills, technical expertise, geographic market knowledge and real-world experience to understand the challenges facing those left behind in the financial ecosystem.”

Tanda’s platform and network supports 58 banks and saccos, four telecoms, 18 billers, 12,000 merchants and agents and has served over 300,000 unique customers, all of which have processed millions of transactions to date.

Geoffrey Mulei, CEO of Tanda, said: “Our team will continue to run aggressive agent and customer acquisition drives across the region, while securing more strategic partnerships in these new markets to further support Tanda’s growth and strategy as we pursue our goal of digitising payments across Africa. Tanda is excited to be at the forefront of the rapid shift towards innovative digital-first solutions, especially in markets that are ripe for disruption.”

Heath added that Tanda’s founding team have a successful history of building agency networks from the ground up and a background in managing family micro-retail operations. “This knowledge was shown not in flashy presentations and buzz words, but with real growth on the ground and solid corporate partnerships where other early-stage businesses would normally struggle to get a meeting.”

Tanda has now set its sights on growing its Kenyan footprint to 100,000 agents and merchants and an expansion to Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda within the next 24 months.