Kayko Secures $1.2M in Seed Funding to Transform SME Finance in Rwanda

Rwandan fintech startup Kayko has raised $1.2 million in seed funding to digitize small business operations and unlock access to capital for thousands of enterprises across the country.

Kayko, a Kigali-based financial technology company, announced the funding round backed by Burrow Capital, Luxembourg Development Agency, Hanga Ignite by BRD, and develoPPP Ventures. The investment marks a pivotal moment for the platform, which currently serves over 8,500 small and medium enterprises across Rwanda.

What Is Kayko?

Kayko is a micro-ERP platform designed specifically for African small businesses. The application enables merchants to manage daily bookkeeping, track cash flow, monitor inventory, process payments through point-of-sale systems, and maintain tax compliance. The platform generates RRA-approved electronic billing machine receipts and provides real-time financial insights to business owners.

What distinguishes Kayko from traditional bookkeeping tools is its dual function as a data infrastructure layer. By capturing sales, expenses, and inventory movements in real time, the platform creates a comprehensive financial profile that banks and financial institutions can use to assess creditworthiness.

From Personal Challenge to National Solution

The startup was founded in 2021 by brothers Crepin and Kevin Kayisire, both graduates of African Leadership University in Kigali. The inspiration came from a deeply personal experience with their mother's struggle to secure financing for her catering business.

According to founder Crepin Kayisire, their mother left her government position to start a catering business but faced repeated rejections from banks when seeking loans to expand. Despite the business performing well, the lack of professional financial records made it impossible to prove creditworthiness. This experience, witnessed during their teenage years while helping with the family business, became the foundation for what would evolve from a university capstone project into a full-fledged fintech company.

Addressing Rwanda's Finance Gap

Rwanda's formal micro, small, and medium enterprises face an estimated annual finance gap exceeding $1.2 billion. Most small businesses operate in what industry observers call a "data vacuum", conducting transactions, paying taxes, and managing inventory, yet remaining invisible to traditional financial institutions due to the absence of digital records.

Kayko's solution addresses this by transforming everyday business activity into verifiable financial data. The platform serves neighborhood kiosks, salons, retail shops, and service businesses, creating what the company describes as a "system of record" for Rwanda's small business economy.

The Path Forward

The seed funding will enable Kayko to strengthen its technical infrastructure, develop proprietary credit scoring models based on merchant data, and facilitate working capital loans through partnerships with banks and microfinance institutions. The company's stated goal is to turn everyday business activity into tangible access to capital for underserved enterprises.

As Rwanda advances its National Fintech Strategy for 2024-2029, which aims to position Kigali as a regional financial hub, Kayko's work bridging the gap between informal business operations and formal capital represents a critical component of the country's digital transformation agenda.