Kenyan-based fintech platform, Power is set to scale in Kenya while making an entry in Zambia following its $3 million seed funding round led by DOB Equity with participation from Bolt by QED Investors, Quona Capital, Zephyr Acorn and Norrsken Accelerator.

The startup was founded by Brian Dempsey after working in Africa’s microfinance space for seven years, including at Botswana’s Letshego. Power Financial Wellness was founded after Brain took a break in 2020 to build the startup operating out of Kenya.

The startup issues partner employees access to short and long-term loans, investment opportunities and insurance products. Unlike other micro lenders who rely on credit reference bureaus to make lending decisions, it only lends to employees and contractors (gig workers) of companies they have on-boarded on their platform, lowering the risk of defaults, and ensuring that borrowers access funds that they can pay back.

The startup has so far on-boarded 75 companies in Kenya, giving it access to more than 40,000 workers, out of which it’s been able to serve 15%.

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“We integrate to their payment or payroll system allowing their workforce to download the Power app. We then conduct digital identity checks, and open up our four key services to them,” said Dempsey, who co-founded Power with Chandra Singh in 2020.

“Once we connect into a company, we already know how much the individuals are earning, how long they’ve worked there. We know whether they’re full-time, part-time contractors or gig workers. We connect into the credit bureau in real time to pull information on other facilities they might have in the market. And we use all that information to then provide a unique amount, interest rate and loan tenure for workers,” he said.