Ugandan startup gnuGrid, has increased the size of its seed funding round to US$612,500. Pivoting its product offering to move into the fintech space.
gnuGrid was launched in 2019 by David Opio and James Dailey. With that, Solar Sentra aimed to streamline and automate the highly fragmented solar industry in Uganda and beyond was developed. Thereby, using AI-optimised sensors to monitor solar systems and collect data on power usage. Thus, solar companies use it to tailor service delivery.
Coupled with this are digital payments, predictive analytics, customer profiling and data management, among others, to help solar companies operate more effectively at a lower cost.
Earlier this year, the startup kicked off with a capital raise, which it has since added to in order to close its seed round at US$612,500. The cash comes from a handful of individual angel investors giving gnuGrid a pre-money valuation of US$6.25 million. In 2019, the startup initially raised $50k to develop its tech engine, pilot, and launch the product into the market.
gnuGrid’s switch
gnuGrid pivoted to become a licensed credit reference bureau to help many informal financial and formal institutions de-risk their investment. And also, build reputational collateral for the last-mile credit consumers or borrowers.
Opio said: “gnuGrid has the system necessary to onboard millions of unbanked/tier four consumers in Uganda. The whole of Africa, actually,”
“It is the first-ever local credit reference bureau licensed by the Bank of Uganda to provide credit reference services. Services that enable lenders to know how borrowers repay their loans.”
The startup was able to set up data hosting servers and a state-of-the-art customer care service centre with the fund. As well as, onboard staff, build the CRB platform and implement sales and marketing strategies. With the round now closed, gnuGrid is embarking on a US$10 million Series A raise, working with PwC.
Opio further stated: “The US$10 million raised will go into scaling the CRB services to the last mile of informal financial institutions. By collecting data from several credit providers, expanding the data hosting infrastructure, enhancing data security and protection. Also, onboarding more staffs, and scaling the CRB solution to other Africa countries, starting with Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia,”