Kayko Raises $1.2M to Expand SME Finance Access in Rwanda
TLDR
- Rwandan fintech startup Kayko secures $1.2 million seed funding for data-driven SME platform.
- Founded by Crepin and Kevin Kayisire in 2021, Kayko aids SMEs in sales, inventory management, taxes, and payments.
- Over 8,500 Rwandan SMEs benefit from Kayko's bookkeeping, inventory, tax support, facilitating improved access to credit and business scalability.
Rwandan fintech startup Kayko has raised $1.2 million in seed funding to expand its data-driven platform for small and medium-sized businesses.
Founded in 2021 by brothers Crepin and Kevin Kayisire, Kayko provides a point-of-sale and business management system that helps SMEs process sales, manage inventory, track expenses, handle taxes, and accept payments. The platform captures daily business activity and turns it into structured financial data.
More than 8,500 SMEs in Rwanda use Kayko for bookkeeping, inventory management, and tax compliance, according to the company. Kayko said many businesses operate daily but lack usable financial records, limiting their ability to access credit or scale operations.
The seed round included investment from Burrow Capital, the Luxembourg Development Agency, and Hanga Ignite by BRD and develoPPP Ventures. Kayko plans to use the funding to strengthen its infrastructure, expand its data capabilities, and develop credit scoring and lending tools based on real transaction data.
The founders said the platform acts as a micro enterprise resource planning system and a data layer for small businesses. By structuring sales and expense data, Kayko aims to help financial institutions better assess SME risk and provide working capital tied to actual business performance.
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Points clés à retenir
Access to finance remains one of the main constraints for SMEs across Africa, where many businesses operate informally or rely on cash transactions. Banks often struggle to assess risk due to limited financial records, even when businesses are active and profitable. Fintech platforms like Kayko address this gap by embedding financial tools into daily operations. By capturing sales, inventory, and tax data at the point of activity, these systems create a digital trail that can support credit decisions. This approach shifts lending from collateral-based models toward cash-flow-based assessment. Rwanda has positioned itself as a testing ground for SME-focused fintech due to its digital public infrastructure and support for formalisation. As more SMEs adopt digital tools, lenders gain better visibility into business performance. Seed funding into SME data platforms reflects growing investor interest in models that link software adoption with financial access. Companies that can translate operational data into lending outcomes may play a central role in expanding credit to small businesses while managing risk more effectively.
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