South African internet-based marketplace for home services, Kandua, has announced that it has raised a significant pre-Series A fundraising round from a group of investors that includes Knife Capital and AGEV. This comes after seed funding from angel investors such as ASISA ESD Initiative, IDF Capital, and Catalyst Fund, the startup states.
According to Kandua, the latest investment round will enhance business development efforts, expand its product offering and solidify profitable growth channels.
“We have been very deliberate in choosing our investment partners to add value at each stage of our start-up growth journey,” says Sayo Folawiyo, CEO and co-founder of Kandua.
“We are delighted to welcome Knife Capital and AGEV as equity investors to the business. We are looking forward to executing the aggressive growth strategy enabled by the funding and will look to bring on even more high-value partners and funders into the story.”
Why The Investors Invested
“Kandua is an exciting investment to add to the Knife Capital venture capital portfolio. The business has grown significantly over the past 18 months and has now reached a breakout point of scale to ramp up both B2B and B2C activities,” says Keet van Zyl, investment partner at Knife.
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AGEV’s Nicolaas Botha adds: “Kandua is bringing skilled, vetted and verified service providers and customers closer together — advancing job creation in the process. It is the kind of business we are proud to support.”
Knife Capital operates KNF Ventures I and II’s Section 12J venture capital assets, as well as selected family office portfolios. The VC recently rolled out a $50m Knife Fund III to resolve the crucial funding gap in Series B that has defined South Africa’s venture capital asset class, contributing to companies not achieving their full potential or exiting too early. The fund consists of two primary financing vehicles: Jersey’s dollar-denominated limited partnership and South Africa’s rand-denominated limited partnership, which will co-invest in portfolio companies alongside each other.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Founded in 2015 by Arjun Khoosal and Sayo Folawiyo, Kandua is an online marketplace situated in Johannesburg that provides a digital platform that links small service firms with people in need of services. It also provides financial, operational, and marketing capabilities to contractors.
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Kandua claims that its direct business-to-consumer (B2C) market is expanding, and that business-to-business (B2B) is also gaining traction. New cooperation areas, embedded financing, insurance, and upskilling for Kandua’s contractors are among the other business development opportunities mentioned.
Kandua claims it is using its platform to support the sponsorship of construction professionals in its service provider network to restore important small businesses in vulnerable communities in order to assist rebuild South Africa following the recent upheaval.
As a result, small businesses whose property was destroyed during the turmoil can request for free structural repairs through Kandua, according to the statement.
Kandua home services
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer