South African credit bureau and software firm Inoxico is eyeing growth opportunities in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry in the rest of the continent after security funding from a German-based financier DEG Group. By Gugu Lourie
Inoxico, which sells commercial credit, counterparty & market intelligence data, has secured more than R8 million (€500 000) interest free loan from DEG to expand its services. The loan is repayable upon success of supported Inoxico’s activities.
DEG, a subsidiary of KfW, is one of the largest European development finance institutions.
When asked what would the loan from DEG be utilised for, Paul Ammer, spokesperson of Inoxico, said: “Inoxico is financing marketing efforts and software enhancements to expand its Supply Chain Governance service suite in SA and Africa. A particular focus is the rollout of Inoxico’s Software as a Service product, Inoxico Matrix, which proactively helps identify conflicts of interests as well as other supply chain fraud amongst companies’ employees and suppliers.”
This is no surprise as the global SaaS market is expected to experience phenomenal growth in few years as its adoption is rising tremendously as the enterprise are continuously looking to third parties for managing their software.
According to an industry latest report, the global SaaS industry is estimated to grow to $67 billion in 2018 versus $49 billion in the past year.
Inoxico specializes in sourcing, verifying and analyzing data on companies across the continent. The resulting databases, reports and its proprietary software solutions help supply chain, credit and investment managers prevent fraud, waste and abuse in their ecosystems.
The funding by DEG will come in handy for Inoxico’s expansion plans.
“The support of DEG allows us to fast track our Africa expansion – further enabling clients to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in their supply chains across the continent. We are greatly looking forward to a successful cooperation in 2016 and beyond,” says Andre Stürmer, CEO of Inoxico
When asked which markets is Inoxico targets to grow its SaaS services, Ammer said: “Inoxico is looking at several markets across Africa. The decision is driven by a number of market and data factors but Inoxico is ultimately following client demand. At this time we are in negotiations with parties to open additional local offices in East and Southern Africa.”
