Ugandan asset financing company, Tugende, has raised $3.6m in additional equity financing to close its Series A round. This additional round was agreed and structured in 2020 and was led by Partech, the French venture capital firm, with participation from Enza Capital and regionally based angel investors.
Partech and Enza join Toyota Tsusho’s Mobility 54, which led the first close announced in September 2020, as Tugende’s investors. With this latest round of funding, Tugende’s Series A comes to a total of $9.9m.
Founded in Kampala, by CEO Michael Wilkerson in 2012. the company provides a technology-based medium for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to own assets that help generate income.
Some of these assets include motorcycle taxis, boat engines, cars, and refrigerators, but also medical and life insurance, training, safety equipment, and digital credit profiles. It is currently piloting financing for e-mobility assets.
Since their operations launched nearly 9 years ago, Tugende has served more than 43,000 clients across Kenya and Uganda. It also has 20 branches in Uganda and 4 in Kenya.
The technological aspect of Tugende’s offering is in the fact that payments for the assets are digitalized. With the digital data, Tugende is able to provide proprietary credit scores automatically to all clients to help them monitor their performance. This could give the clients access to discounts and new assets.
