Ugandan digital platform Zofi Cash secures $1 million funding  from Advancly

Zofi Cash, a Ugandan digital platform, has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding from Advancly, a business financing company, to enable it offer more salary advances to thousands of Ugandans.

Zofi Cash currently has partnerships with over 1,500 employers to serve more than 20,000 employees in Uganda alone. However, due to limited capital, the digital company, which offers the salary advances through an App, has not been able to extend more to more applicants.

But with the new funding, which is purely a debt, the company says “we should be able to serve 50-60% of the employees that have been on our waiting list for the past six months.”

Lotanna Julian, co-founder and CEO of Advancly, on Wednesday said the funding is intended to promote continuous innovation in the flow of money.

 “People and businesses to experience progress, the flow of money needs to be innovated continually,”  he said.

This aligns with Zofi cash’s goal of building a robust financial ecosystem that brings prosperity to all.

Advancly is a business-to-business financing company in six African countries that aims to bridge the gap by reimagining access to credit for MSMEs in Africa and emerging markets through capital, data, and technology. They have been active investors in Africa funding over 10 startups like Kenya’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform Lipalater, e-commerce platform Market Force, and SME Financing platform Pezesha. Zofi Cash is their first foray into the Ugandan market. 

Zofi Cash was founded in October 2021 by Paul Kirungi, the CEO and Gordon Turibamwe.

According to Zofi Cash, their mission is to revolutionize the way salaried individuals access their earnings and enables workers to meet their immediate financial needs without waiting until the end of the month.

Notably, over the last three years, there has been a trajectory growth of investment towards startups in Africa.

On the other hand, the Brighter Bridges report of 2021 states that out of the $4.8 billion worth of all disclosed deals in Africa, 75% of the deals are concentrated in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt.