NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Founded in 2019 by Bendon Murgor and Eliutherius Juma, Paylend is digitising the manual, black book recording of data traditionally used by MSMEs. So far it has digitised over 10,000 SMEs, providing an array of services including access to credit and crowdfunding tools.

The US$2 million seed investment comes from Next Chymia Consulting HK Limited, an Asian company that provides blockchain applications, consultancy services and training to global entities. Paylend will use the capital to expand its operations in the Kenyan market and open new markets in Tanzania, Zambia and Nigeria as part of its three-year growth plan.

“I believe in impact driven solutions. For a very long time, MSMEs have experienced stunted growth due to lack of efficient business tools or lack of funds. With Paylend, we are able to turn this around by helping these businesses access affordable credit quicker thus allowing them to have liquidity thus ensuring business continuity. Additionally, we form alliances with strategic partners with similar goals to present business tools that ease operations of these MSMEs,” said Juma, the startup’s chief executive officer (CEO0.

Photo courtesy of Simon Berry.