Kasha has raised $21M series B led by Knife Capital to expand in Africa
Kasha, a digital retail and last mile distribution platform for pharmaceuticals and fast-moving consumer goods, intends to use the funding to expand its operations into South and West Africa, solidifying its position as Africa’s leading digital health access platform. The funds will also be invested into Kasha’s digital platform and enterprise services.
Since Kasha’s inception in Rwanda in 2016, the company has prioritised women as their main customer segment, given women’s significant influence over health product and household goods purchases. In Africa, women make decisions on 80% of household purchases and 60% of small shop owners are women. Consequently, Kasha’s largest customer base is women.
The company, which has grown rapidly within Kenya and Rwanda, recently commenced operations in South Africa and has plans to expand to West Africa later this year.
Kasha’s exponential growth, as evidenced by its Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) which has increased by over 50x since the close of their Series A round, is set to continue with country expansion and successful execution of its enterprise services contracts with top-tier clients.
Starting in Rwanda, Kasha raised $1.5 million in seed funding from angel and impact investors. In late 2020, after expansion into Kenya, Kasha secured a $3.6 million Series A from Finnfund, Swedfund, DFC and Mastercard Corporate. Knife Capital led this recent Series B with participation from Finnfund, DFC, Tim Koogle (ex-Yahoo CEO), Beyond Capital Ventures, Altree Capital, Bamboo Capital’s BLOC Smart Africa Fund and Five35 Ventures.
As a female founded and led company, Kasha has overcome significant challenges in Africa’s start-up funding landscape, where less than 2% of funding goes towards female founder CEO-led companies. Nonetheless, Kasha was the first tech start-up with ground logistics operations that started in Rwanda and then expanded into other African countries. It has now raised more venture capital funding than any other start-up in Rwanda.
“We are excited about leading Kasha’s Series B round,” says Keet van Zyl, Knife Capital founding partner. “In the current economic climate it is refreshing to come across such a high-growth capital efficient business that is female-led and optimised to serve the large mass market segment in Africa.”
Co-investors FinnFund, Tim Koogle (founding CEO of Yahoo!), and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) have all reiterated their support for Kasha’s mission and their excitement about the company’s upcoming growth phase.
Kasha sells and delivers pharmaceutical products, household goods and consumer health products discretely to low-income consumers, resellers, pharmacies and health facilities in East Africa.
Kasha provides a broad integrated basket of products that supports health across life stages, from new-born child health, maternal health, menstrual hygiene, family planning, sexual & reproductive health, non-communicable diseases (e.g. hypertension & diabetes), as well as HIV/AIDS prevention & treatment, among others.
