How Funding for an Innovative Fintech is Helping Kenyan Stores Grow Sales

A team from a growing startup in Nairobi is reaching out to store owners across Nairobi with a new offering: grow sales with an effective way to integrate Buy Now/Pay Later solutions into their payment systems. The competitive advantage? The locally grown nature of the technology with a team well-known across the neighborhoods served. The pushback? Consumer credit worthiness. That is why Shop Okoa also develops machine-learning based credit-scoring tools that can put vendors’ minds at ease. It is in no way a simple business, however.

It is still the early days for Shop Okoa. One co-founder, Kelvin Mulama, who has a background in agriculture and technology, used revenue from his small farming business to help jump-start the company. One of the investment scouts at Giving Desk identified the promise and rising popularity of Shop Okoa along with obvious synergies in its mission.

We are excited to work with Shop Okoa to help bring some of the Giving Desk machine learning experience to the table, as well as a bit of funding to scale this burgeoning startup.