Kenyan app, Fundis which helps users discover fixers has raised an undisclosed investment in a recent seed funding led by Nairobi-based investment office Kuria Capital.
The new funding raised last month is the first known seed funding for Fundis. The firm has also disclosed that the funds will be utilized for a tech overhaul.
Fundis in a chat with WeeTracker said that it has been working out further details on the funding with the investor. “We are keeping the sum undisclosed by way of a legal arrangement,” Fundis said.
The find-a-fixer platform hopes to raise a larger amount of money mid next year with the support of Kuria Innovation Fund, which is the flagship initiative of the East African seed stage venture investment.
As part of its goals, Fundis hopes to provide solutions to the challenges in Africa’s informal sector. In the continent, 85 percent of the employment is informal. According to the International Labor Organization, more than 60 percent of total Sub-Saharan African employment is in the informal sector. Yet the sector remains significantly underdeveloped. In Kenya, the informal sector represents a whopping 82.7 percent of employment.
According to Fundis, the market is in a chaotic state, lacks efficient access points, is hampered by poor service delivery, and drawn back by the lack of technological know-how.
Fundis said, “we are excited about the fast-growing rate of the African gig economy, and we are doing the heavy lifting toward building an ecosystem where every fixer (fundi) can make a decent livelihood and improve their skills while at it.
Fundis is “sitting on a rocket that’s about to launch.” The startup has a solid two years’ experience in the informal sector. More so, their investor has experience in founding a similar company, Optimac Labour Solutions, which is focused on contractors and property agencies.
With these under its belt, the startup is doubling down on making the informal sector more functional with its mobile application.
“We acknowledge that skills acquisition in this sector is largely informal (apprenticeship) and we’re putting in place mechanisms to empower technicians (Fundis) through up-skilling and the guarantee of continuous income on the platform.”
