IFC Invests Sh860m in a Kenyan Tech Firm for Expansion Across Africa

By Soko Directory Team / Published April 30, 2018 | 11:26 am

Africa Talking, a Kenyan based API startup that enables businesses to build robust and value-additive digital products has closed an 860 million shillings equity investment from the International Finance Corporation, Orange Digital Ventures and Social Capital to expand its operations in Africa.

The company serves more than 1,000 digital businesses and provides communication-platform-as-a-service APIs to over 20,000 software developers in the continent. It is dedicated to allowing these companies to create applications faster and in an efficient way.

Africa’s Talking’s technology allows both individuals and companies regardless of whether they are developers, startups or large enterprises to incorporate video, voice, and messaging communication into their applications to better their customer relations.

The company has helped farmers facilitate amazing yields with their SMS services. Family planning clinics have also utilized Africa Talking’s voice APIs to connect with women in various communities.

Headquartered in Kenya, the company has expanded to Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania and is building robust and value-driven digital items for small-scale and large-scale business enterprises in the regions.

Apart from the API services, Africa Talking also deals with cloud-based software that virtualizes telco infrastructure in several African markets

According to the IFC Global Head for Venture Capital, Nikunj Jinsi, the funds will help Africa’s Talking expand its integrated solution to new markets across Africa, “filling a crucial gap and helping fuel the digital economy across the continent.”

“The investment will leverage on IFC’s experience in Africa catalyzing expansion and development of new products. Together, we believe that we can build the foundation and environment that developers need to build successful African businesses,” said Africa Talking CEO and Co-Founder Samuel Gikandi.

With an aim to expand to 20 countries by the end of the year 2019, part of the IFC investment will go to Africa’s Talking Studio, an incubation centre that will nurture brilliant developers build products.

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