By Staff Reporter 
Aug 5, 2021
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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).
According to the company, 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 who need to get 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.
Globally, the home services market size is the third-largest market after e-commerce and travel. Kandua has thousands of contractors who have received nearly R300 million worth of business and other value from the platform.
Kandua’s mission is to shorten the distance between having a skill and making a living from it.
The company said, 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,” it said.
Kandua CEO and co-founder Sayo Folawiyo said: “We have been very deliberate in choosing our investment partners to add value at each stage of our start-up growth journey. 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 enabling high-value funding and will look to bring on even more high value partners and funders into the story.”
Knife investment partner Keet van Zyl said: “Kandua is an exciting investment to add to the Knife Capital venture capital portfolio. The business has grown significantly over the past 18 months and has now reached a breakout point of scale to ramp up both B2B and B2C activities.”
Nicolaas Botha from AGEV said: “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.”
To help rebuild South Africa after the recent unrest, Kandua said it was utilising its platform to facilitate the sponsoring of construction pros in its service provider network to repair vital small businesses in affected communities. “Small businesses whose property was damaged during the unrest can apply via Kandua for free structural repairs,” the company said.