Online home services marketplace Kandua has landed major financial backing from venture capitalist firms Knife Capital and Allan Gray E2 Ventures (AGEV).
Kandua is a Johannesburg-based online marketplace that provides a digital platform that connects small service businesses with customers in need of jobs done. It also provides contractors with financial, operational and marketing tools.
In a statement, Kandua says it has raised a significant pre-Series A funding round from a consortium of investors that includes Knife Capital and AGEV.
This follows seed funding from angel investors ASISA ESD Initiative, IDF Capital andCatalyst Fund, among others, it states.
According to Kandua, the latest investment round will enhance business development efforts, expand its product offering and solidify profitable growth channels.
“We have been very deliberate in choosing our investment partners to add value at each stage of our start-up growth journey,” says Sayo Folawiyo, CEO and co-founder of Kandua.
“We are delighted to welcome Knife Capital and AGEV as equity investors to the business. We are looking forward to executing the aggressive growth strategy enabled by the funding and will look to bring on even more high-value partners and funders into the story.”
Kandua indicates that its direct business-to-consumer business (B2C) market is growing, with business-to-business (B2B) also building momentum. Additional opportunities for business development consist of new partnership areas, embedded financing, insurance and upskilling for Kandua’s contractors, it notes.
“Kandua is an exciting investment to add to the Knife Capital venture capital portfolio. The business has grown significantly over the past 18 months and has now reached a breakout point of scale to ramp up both B2B and B2C activities,” says Keet van Zyl, investment partner at Knife.
AGEV’s Nicolaas Botha adds: “Kandua is bringing skilled, vetted and verified service providers and customers closer together – advancing job creation in the process. It is the kind of business we are proud to support.”
To help rebuild South Africa after the recent unrest, Kandua says it is utilising its platform to facilitate the sponsoring of construction professionals in its service provider network to repair vital small businesses in affected communities.
As a result, small companies, whose property was damaged during the unrest, can apply via Kandua for free structural repairs, it states.
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