A Zambian micro-finance startup, Lupiya Loans, has raised a US$1 million funding from Enygma Ventures, a US based venture capitalist that was looking to invest into Sub-Saharan African startups.
Lupiya loans was short listed among other applicants and raised $1 million funding to help it continue to scale and roll out its services that ensure Zambians, especially women are able to participate in the economy through its financial inclusion strategy.
Lupiya loans Chief Executive Officer – CEO Evelyn Kaingu told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview that the company has so far attracted over 1,000 customers, shared in a ratio of 60% women to 40% men and is since glad that more women are accessing its products.
She said that the company which is now going into its third year of operation had prepared to look for outside funding in order to begin to scale up its operations and has set out to seek as many opportunities that would be available for it’s kind of business.
“We are a fintech start up that provides micro loans to individuals, small businesses and specifically women micro entrepreneurs. Our goal is to provide financial opportunity for many Zambians who do not have access to financial services to progress economically. We leverage technology to streamline our processes and continuously allow us to build more affordable products to target more market segments,” She said.
Kaingu has since urged small businesses to leverage social capital saying this can be obtained from family, friends, colleagues or networks with people engaged in platforms such as village banking. She said village banking has become an impactful platform to raise capital, hence effort should go towards setting up a business into a professional entity and trust worthy persona even with very little resources.
She added that the company remains excited about its future particularly its financial inclusion strategy to help a lot of Zambian have access to more financial services. “We look forward to working with SME’s and providing them with tailor made financing options, we are also yet to roll out a couple of new products via mobile money,” She concluded.
Zambian start ups have faced numerous challenges especially when it comes to raising capital but Lupiya has provided the much needed example. Village banking is now a big phenomenon in Zambia and participants can use it to initiate their ideas into a start up business which can then seek venture capital to scale. For more, email info@zambianbusinesstimes.com
