Credit firm Pezesha, which offers B2B online lending infrastructure has announced that it is now fully licensed to operate in Uganda.
The company, which closed a pre-series A investment of KES 1.32 billion (USD 11 million – which was a mix of $6 million in equity and $5 million debt and led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II (WWBCP II).) in August last year, has been pursuing avenues to scale its operations and enter new markets in Africa.
For a long time, it has been offering its services in Kenya and Ghana. Uganda now joins its turf. Pezesha, however, has since hinted that it might be taking its business to other African countries, and soon in Nigeria and Rwanda.
There is no mention of whether it will set up shop in Tanzania.
“We are excited to announce that Pezesha is now fully licensed to operate in Uganda and impact more MSMEs with affordable financial services and forge deeper embedded finance partnerships in Uganda,” says Pezesha in a LinkedIn statement.
The nod was given by Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority (UMRA). Pezesha then received a digital lending license from the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda.
Partners/clients integrate seamlessly with Pezesha’s APIs and offer credit among other financial services to their merchant network at the point of sale.
It uses credit scoring APIs, which act as the engine of a simple but robust process where MSMEs receive real-time loan offers to purchase stock and pay later.
Pezesha also offers financial literacy courses and debt counselling to MSMEs who do not qualify for loans to improve their credit scoring and ensure responsible borrowing as they grow within the Pezesha financial ladder.
The firm had mentioned opening up the debt liquidity market by working with strategic institutional investors such as IOG-Cardano. Through this partnership, the company can access affordable capital by layering DeFi liquidity channels on top of the scalable digital lending infrastructure.