Kenya-based fintech Koa is looking to digitalise the asset management industry with the launch of its mobile application, media reports said. Koa’s mobile application, which is in its beta testing phase, allows users to save and invest their money in local mutual funds.
Co-founder Alexis Roman told Disrupt Africa, “Annually, over 60 percent of savings across Kenya are being held in informal channels – saving groups, SACCOs… The majority of these informal channels don’t give users the ability to control their finances or seek higher interest on their savings.”
Koa completed its seed funding round last year and was recently selected for the latest Catalyst Fund programme. The startup looks to disrupt the savings and investments market in East Africa through its launch.
Recently, Kenya-based banking startup Tanda announced its plans to expand its operations regionally as well as to other markets in Africa. Earlier this year, Tanda concluded a funding round, where investors such as HAVAÍC, Zedcrest Capital, DFS Lab, Victor Asemota among others participated.
Geoffrey Mulei, chief executive officer of Tanda told the media, “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 hosts over 58 SACCOs and banks,18 billers, 4 telecoms and over 12,000 agents and merchants through its platform. According to media reports, Tanda plans on growing its Kenyan footprint to over 100,000 merchants and agents while expanding further to Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.