Uganda’s fintech startup Ensibuuko has raised $1m from global impact investor FCA Investments to provide digital financial services to over 200,000 rural customers in Uganda. With the new raise, Ensibuuko expects to build out its operations in Uganda and as well expand its proprietary microfinance platform to reach more credit unions (SACCOs) and savings groups across Africa.
According to Ensibuuko’s Founder & CEO, Gerald Otim, “With this latest investment, Ensibuuko ups its competitive stance in Africa’s fintech space. The investment will allow Ensibuuko to scale rapidly in Uganda and to expand to other markets. Ensibuuko also intends to make major improvements to its newer digital loan and microinsurance products, which target rural customers.”
Founded in 2014 in Kampala, Uganda, Ensibuuko’s platform automates data and processes payments for SACCOs and savings groups and connects them to the wider ecosystem of financial service providers including telecoms, insurance, and banks. It also has consumer products for saving, borrowing, and managing money on a mobile wallet even those without smartphones.
With three of Uganda’s leading banks and microfinance companies as well as two of the largest telecoms in Uganda, as its customers, Ensibuuko processes USD $1 million in transactions every month and is 80 percent lower than the cost of traditional banking software.
This new raise brings total investments in Ensibuuko to $1.6 Million having closed a pre-seed round in 2017 from a group of Canadian angel investors.
Ensibuuko is also one of the nine grantees of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion. The fund is aimed at supporting startups or small businesses that are helping people get online for the first time using mobile internet. Also, the fund supports innovative solutions to increase mobile internet adoption and use for those currently not using mobile internet services.
