At a Glance
- Kayko secured $1.2 million in seed funding to scale its financial data platform for SMEs in Rwanda.
- The startup helps small businesses convert daily sales and expenses into trusted records for lenders.
- Investors include Burrow Capital, the Luxembourg Development Agency, Hanga Ignite by BRD and develoPPP Ventures.
Rwanda’s small businesses are widely seen as the engine of the economy.
From neighborhood retailers to growing service firms, they generate steady sales and daily cash flow that keep local markets moving.
Yet many of these businesses remain shut out of formal credit.
Banks often struggle to assess their financial health, not because the businesses lack activity, but because their records are informal, fragmented or entirely offline.
That gap between real economic activity and usable financial data has left thousands of viable enterprises without access to loans, even as they continue to trade and employ workers.
A Kigali-based financial data startup believes that problems can be fixed, starting with better visibility into how small businesses actually operate.
Kayko has raised $1.2 million in seed funding to scale a data-driven platform that helps small and medium-sized enterprises capture, organize and verify their financial activity, turning day-to-day transactions into records lenders can trust.
Turning daily activity into usable data
Founded in 2021 by brothers Crepin Kayisire and Kevin Kayisire, Kayko began as a university capstone project before evolving into a full micro-enterprise resource planning platform.
Today, it is used by more than 8,500 SMEs across Rwanda.
The software allows businesses to manage bookkeeping, inventory, sales tracking and tax compliance in one place.
In the background, it creates a consistent digital record of sales, expenses and operational behavior that most small businesses have never been able to present to a bank.
Kayko’s core premise is straightforward: small businesses already generate valuable financial data every day, but it often goes unseen by formal lenders.
By structuring that information, the company aims to make SME operations easier to understand and evaluate.
Backing from development and early-stage investors
The seed round was backed by Burrow Capital, the Luxembourg Development Agency, Hanga Ignite by BRD and develoPPP Ventures.
Kayko said the funding will be used to deepen its presence in Rwanda and strengthen the data infrastructure that supports lending and credit access for SMEs.
The company positions itself as both a micro-ERP system and a financial data layer.
For lenders, the platform provides clearer signals about how businesses earn, spend and comply with regulations.
For SMEs, it offers tools that simplify daily operations while quietly building credibility.
Expanding access to credit for SMEs
Kayko plans to invest the new capital in improving its technology, expanding data-driven lending partnerships and refining its credit scoring models.
The aim is to help banks design working capital products that reflect how small businesses actually function, rather than relying on traditional collateral-heavy assessments.
As African fintech investment increasingly focuses on practical solutions for underserved markets, Kayko’s approach highlights a broader shift toward closing the data gap between informal enterprise and formal finance—beginning with Rwanda’s growing SME sector.
