Kenya’s Tanda has announced it is expanding its operations regionally after closing a funding round in February 2021. The startup secured backing from HAVAÍC, Zedcrest Capital, DFS Lab, Victor Asemota and 3 more investors. Tanda has also secured key strategic partnerships with Mastercard & Interswitch which will further accelerate this growth. The growth 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.

Tanda describes itself as an independent agent network operator. Since its inception in 2018, Tanda say it has enabled banks, telcos and a variety of digital service providers to serve their customers through a nationwide network of commission-based agents, with distribution costs that are a fraction of traditional channels. Tanda says it aims to make informal banking an accessible and lucrative growth channel for its agents and service providers.

Today Tanda’s platform and network supports 58 banks and SACCOs, 4 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. Tanda says it 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.

“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,” said Geoffrey Mulei, chief executive officer (CEO) of Tanda.

“We see Tanda at the forefront of the race to digitize the last mile of the African economy by providing a dense network of agents who can be the bridge between online and offline commerce,” said Jake Kendall, Partner at DFS Lab, an investor in Tanda.