Kwanji, the emerging market payment specialist, has closed its first crowdfunding round, exceeding its initial target and finishing 123 per cent overfunded having raised £496,682 on the UK equity crowdfunding platform, SyndicateRoom.
“Kwanji is a fantastic UK-based fintech business, which helps SMEs save significant amounts of money on their cross border FX charges,” shared CEO of SyndicateRoom Gonçalo de Vasconcelos. “Its rapid growth offers a really exciting proposition for investors as it continues to expand its platform and launch in new territories.”
CEO and Founder Leslie Onyesoh was ‘honoured’ by the support the campaign generated, especially after besting the initial funding target of £400,000 four weeks before the round ended. Built on a vision of unshackling emerging market trade, Kwanji will use the funds to scale and accelerate its growth into new markets, helping businesses easily access the best FX rates regardless of size or location.
This campaign follows a successful launch in Kenya in November 2015. Kwanji opened its first African office and signed partnership agreements with leading local private equity, family office, real estate and microfinance entities. With this groundwork in place, Kwanji will roll out to neighbouring countries in East Africa, before pushing into Latin America and Asia.
“The West is in the midst of a revolution in forex delivery, yet there’s been little to no crossover for those in the emerging markets,” commented CEO and founder Leslie Onyesoh. “Many investors on SyndicateRoom had first hand experience of this pain which quickly validated our proposition for delivering optimised and equitable FX pricing direct to businesses in the emerging markets.”
Currently, emerging market businesses can be charged up to 4-10% more than their traditional market counterparts for the same transaction, according to the release. Kwanji is changing this by connecting global forex supply with demand, aggregating multiple FCA regulated brokers across the emerging growth markets.