Seed funding for expansion raised by Kenyan church-focused fintech startup Jumuisha

Jumuisha, which will be available in October 2020, allows churches to accept donations by USSD, bank transfer, mobile money, online payment, or credit cards, as well as pay contractors, suppliers, and staff. The platform connects inward and outbound financial transactions, giving a real-time snapshot and financial reporting.

“We identified the problem during the COVID-19 pandemic when the government-mandated a reduction in the seating capacity of churches to one-third,” co-founder James Chege told Disrupt Africa.

“Our solution helped church members to reserve seats and enabled the church administration to maintain a manifest of members who attended the services for the purpose of contact tracing. Based on initial success, we grew the platform further for the churches to receive donations from their members such as tithe and offerings.”

Jumuisha currently has 138 churches utilising its service, totaling over 250,000 members, and has witnessed over 500,000 bookings and 100,000 money transactions using its platform. It received a round of startup investment in July to help it expand even further.

SprintX Venture Studio, situated in Austin, Texas, provided an unknown sum of funding (US). Sprint, which is owned by 3 pm Ventures, will also assist Jumuisha to develop by providing business strategy, marketing, and technological experience.

“We are quite excited to join SprintX as their involvement over the past three months helped to refine our strategy and gain traction,” said Chege.

“The seed funding will help us to accelerate product development through key hires and strengthen the sales team. The product so far has been developed by the founding team and the sales too are done by us. With the new funding, we will hire additional resources to address demand and accelerate our growth.”

Jumuisha aims to be the primary financial solution for Kenya’s approximately 4,000 registered churches, assisting them in managing donations, payments, and events.

“Our product will continue to evolve in empowering churches to leverage technology in serving their members and community at large,” said Chege.

“NGO operations are very similar in nature to Churches. Jumuisha is gaining the attention of NGOs and we will be customising our products to address their needs to receive donations and manage payments.”