By Mark Kawalya
Ugandan fintech ChapChap, a firm that enables MSMEs to generate trustworthy financial profiles, has secured investment from Danish firm, Nordic Impact Funds to help it scale up operations and increase its social impact.
“We are very excited to start 2022 with this capital injection to accelerate our expansion within and beyond the Ugandan market. We are already servicing more than 20,000 MSMEs in Uganda. This injection is to facilitate digital capacity and financial inclusion for a million customers,” said Emmanuel Emodek, co-founder and managing director of ChapChap.
The types of companies that Nordic Impact Funds invest in are those in the early to mid-stage that have a track record for impact, are profitable and are scaling up their business model. The firm integrates gender into its investment decisions and becomes a hands-on partner with the firm that it chooses to invest in.
“We are extremely proud of this investment. It has a strong focus on small and often women-owned businesses, who can professionalize and expand their businesses thanks to ChapChap,” said Lisbeth Stausholm, the firm’s founder and managing partner.
ChapChaps co-founders Emmanual Emodek and James Alituhikya, along with their primary school teacher Monica Kiconco, started the firm in 2016 with the purpose of empowering small and medium-sized businesses. The firm offers an android platform that has a host of digital financial tools that enable firms to organize and scale up their businesses.
The tool allows small businesses to start operating mobile money agencies, track all transactions in the store, and develop a credit profile that financial institutions can use to determine creditworthiness.
The undisclosed investment will enable ChapChap to streamline its operations and reach more businesses in virgin geographical locations beyond Uganda. The funding was conducted via the Investure Impact Exchange, which links impact projects in developing countries with a global pool of interested investors.
On the use of Investure – Impact Exchange, Emmanuel comments: “We are grateful for the investor match via Investure Impact Exchange. We have here found a mission-aligned investor who will help us scale. In the longer run, we also see the Investure platform as a pathway to a secondary market listing”.
The co-founder and CEO of Investure, Joakim Blom, added that. “The African continent has many opportunities for investors and businesses. But it can be risky and costly to navigate through the uncertainties. That is why we at Investure are here to provide structured information, a comprehensive professional data room, and an end-to-end investment process. So that investors like Nordic Impact Funds can receive all the information they need via the platform. “
