Cape Town-headquartered VCX firm HAVAÍC this week announced a US$500,000 investment in FinAccess, an East African headquartered software solutions provider that digitises community banks or SACCOs (Savings & Credit Cooperative Organisations) and farming co-operatives (“co-ops”) in the region.

According to a statement released by the VC, the investment, allocated from its US$20-million HAVAÍC Universum Core African Fund, which closed in May, is part of a pre-series A funding round to expand the company’s two core products, banking software solution Fincore and agricultural software solution Grobox.

Founded by CEO Barclay Paul Okari in 2017, FinAccess offers a fully proprietary SaaS solution to SACCOs and co-ops.

FinAccess plans to use the investment to cement its market leadership in Kenya and expand into other markets.

It adds that live pilots are underway in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, with planned launches “in the coming months”.

Rob Heath, Partner at HAVAÍC and Director at FinAccess, said, “FinAccess is solving critical problems for Africa’s underserved communities. The team’s growth and ability to perform over the last few years has been incredible to watch, and there is so much scope to continue growing across Kenya and beyond. FinAccess is 100% aligned with our investment thesis to make an impact by supporting early-stage, high-potential companies that solve real-world challenges through technology. We look forward to supporting their unfolding growth journey.”

According to the companies, the agriculture sector employs 65% of Africa’s population, yet only 1% of bank lending goes to agriculture, and the day-to-day operations of well-established SACCOs remain outdated and inefficient.

FinCore digitises and automates the entire financial back office and product functions. The software solution enables SACCO members to access financial services and perform digital transactions via a mobile app or USSD interface.

Co-ops contribute to over 70% of all agricultural output in East Africa and face the same inefficiencies from outdated, manual systems. Grobox is an operations management software solution that tracks and records inventory, production, sales, payments, and finance data.

“Financial inclusion for underserved Africans is at the heart of our business,” says Barclay. “Digitisation ultimately releases credit and other vital financial services so farmers can increase productivity and efficiency. We are very excited to partner with HAVAÍC and bring our software solutions to more African communities.”

The announcement follows HAVAÍC’s recent investments in ShopEx and Talk360, joining the VC’s thriving portfolio of 18 early-stage, high-potential African technology companies.