Kenya’s Patika has been announced as an entrant in Y-Combinator’s summer 22 batch (YCS22) which is expected to go back in-person following virtual activities in the last few years.
Patika, which describes itself as a digital loans book, enables small businesses in Africa to track customer debt, facilitate the repayments, and manage their cash flow.
Co-founded by Phelix Juma and Sidney Rema, Patika was set up to help small businesses in Africa:
- Track customer debt
- Facilitate repayments
- Manage their cash flow
Without such an app, small businesses in the continent result to using pen and paper to record and track customer data which is in-effective and time-consuming.
Lacking a platform to record and be on track with their financial transactions can cost these businesses a lot over time. For instance, Patika reports that:
- Up to 60% of debts in small businesses is paid late and
- These businesses lose as much as $2, 000 a year to non-payments
Patika is automating the previously manual processes like phone call-based repayment reminders, billing, payments, and reconciliations with a vision to grow into a full-stack neo-bank for Africa’s small businesses.
Here is a video demo of what business people can get from using Patika:
YCombinator is one of the most attractive fellowship and accelerator programs for teams that are building in technology, having supported several enterprises including Stripe, Coinbase, Twitch, Instacart and Airbnb.
In the latest announcement of their standard deal, YC indicated that when a company is accepted into the YC batch program, they invest a total of $500, 000. They still invest $125, 000 for 7%, and now also invest an additional $375, 000 on an uncapped safe with an MFN.
African startups that have been backed by YC, have gone on to raise $1.5 more billion, with the inclusion of:
- Flutterwave
- Paystack
- Kobo360
- Cowrywise
- MarketForce
- Kudi
- WaystoCap
- WorkPay
- Healthlane
- Trella
- 54gene
- CredPal
- NALA
- Breadfast
