Johannesburg-based online marketplace for home services Kandua has announced that it has raised a significant Pre-Series A funding round from a consortium of investors that include Knife Capital and Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures (AGEV). The investment will enhance business development efforts, expand Kandua’s product offering and solidify profitable growth channels.
Kandua provides a digital platform that connects small service businesses with customers in need of jobs done. Moreover, the platform provides these contractors with financial, operational, and marketing tools to improve their professionalism and access to digital financial services to improve their financial health.
Kandua’s mission is to shorten the distance between having a skill and making a living from it.
With this latest funding round the business is building up an enviable capitalisation table with seed funding from credible Angel Investors, the ASISA ESD Initiative, IDF Capital as well as Catalyst Fund, among others. In addition, integrated partnerships with the likes of French home improvement retailer Leroy Merlin provide end customers with access to Kandua’s contractors.
“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’s direct business-to-consumer (B2C) business is growing as more customers and pros are being exposed to the service.
Furthermore, Kandua’s business-to-business (B2B) momentum is building, in which other businesses offer Kandua’s services to their customers or use Kandua as a way to connect with an ecosystem of small businesses, either as customers or as suppliers. Additional opportunities for business development consist of new partnership areas, embedded financing, insurance, and upskilling for Kandua’s contractors.
“Kandua is an exciting investment to add to the Knife Capital venture capital portfolio. The business has grown significantly over the past eighteen 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.
Nicolaas Botha from AGEV added: “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.”
Globally, the home services market size is the third-largest market after e-commerce and travel.
Kandua is already well-positioned in the market with thousands of contractors who have received nearly R300 million worth of business and other value from the platform. They are building a business that can change the lives of professionals who operate in the home services industry. Similarly, large markets exist throughout the continent and regional expansion opportunities for Kandua offer further growth prospects in future.
To help rebuild South Africa after the recent unrest, Kandua is utilising its platform to facilitate the sponsoring of construction pros in its extensive service provider network to repair vital small businesses in affected communities. Small businesses whose property were damaged during the unrest, can apply via Kandua for free structural repairs.
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