Johannesburg-based digital finance and e-commerce platform Tafari Capital says it will make five million shares available for interested parties to buy equity, at a minimum price of R4 per share.
According to a statement, the proceeds of the capital raise will primarily be used to mobilise plans to officially launch Tafari Capital’s flagship eChankura platform, which it says will be Africa's first fully-integrated finance and e-commerce platform.
The web- and app-based platform seeks to address the needs of African consumers, entrepreneurs and businesses by providing transactional accounts to the unbanked and under-banked, and providing subsistence entrepreneurs with access to markets.
eChankura is a product of Tafari Financial Services, an authorised financial services provider and registered juristic representative of the financial body, Financial Studio for Insurance Products.
The digital platform, which was first announced in July, will enable SMMEs and individuals to sell products and services to consumers, while being able to accept payments through its bank-level feature – Tafari Pay.
Until 30 September, interested parties are invited to offer to purchase a prescribed minimum of R1 000 and a prescribed maximum of R3 million in equity per individual, trust, stokvel or company.
“The platform opens a world of possibilities, as it offers zero fees for both personal and business accounts, while only charging merchants and advertisers a fee per transaction,” says Dr Thabo Lehlokoe, executive chairman of Tafari Capital.
“Entrepreneurs and SMEs will have a choice between free online stores and the paid-for enterprise version with more features. They will be able to buy products like airtime, electricity, funeral cover and make payments from the comfort of their homes.”
In 2019, Tafari Capital acquired software-as-a-service TechTrend Global, which currently trades as SmartMyCompany.com.
According to Tafari, through the deployment of big data analytics and artificial intelligence, eChankura will be able to generate alternative risk assessment tools from users’ on-platform behaviour.
This functionality will create differentiated access to credit via the credit mall in the mobile Tafari app.
Tafari Capital is listed in the Open Banking Directory, a global listing of banks, neo-banks, fintechs and APIs which embrace the concept of open banking. The company says it is responding to SA’s unemployment crisis by creating thousands of verified self-employed agents throughout the country as distribution agents for its products and services.
In partnership with start-up support vehicle The Start-Up Tribe, Tafari Capital says it will provide free access to practical online entrepreneurship courses to help people to start and grow their own businesses.
Tafari Capital also operates in the health tech and consumer services technology spaces.
“We developed and own the intellectual property for the COVID-19 contact-tracing ‘Citizens App’ developed for the government of Lesotho, with which we have just signed a memorandum of understanding, as well as Qber, an innovative queue management system targeted at large organisations.”
Interested parties can visit the website to register their interest in participating in the capital raise.
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