Kenyan startup Alvin raised $740 000 pre-seed funding.
Kenyan startup Alvin has raised a $740,000 pre-seed funding round as it continues to refine its product, which is currently in private beta phase.
In May of last year, the smart money management software was created to assist consumers to connect their everyday spending with their savings goals.
Alvin is a smart money management app that uses automatic budgeting, personalized offers, and behavioural game design tactics.
Last year, the company published its flagship product, the Alvin App v1 Labrador private beta, as a soft launch to allow it to make changes before an official debut, and closed the year with an oversubscribed $740,000 pre-seed investment round.
The funding round was led by Ingressive Capital. Zephyr Acorn, Voltron Capital, Future Africa, and Tahseen Consulting also featured.
Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade and Tony Nicalo, the former CEO of marketing firm Dondé, were among the other significant investors in the round.
It also includes $100,000 from Forum Ventures, a US-based B2B SaaS-focused accelerator program, as well as a few additional American and Kenyan angels.
Winston Reid, Alvin’s CEO, told Disrupt Africa that he and his co-founders developed the company to address a problem that they and their peers faced on a regular basis.
“The only personal finance applications we could discover in Kenya weren’t optimized for the local context, didn’t offer any direction to help us acquire the assets we wanted to save for, and just offered the opportunity to save but no daily support to help us save for long-term goals,” he said.
“Anyone who wants to develop long-term saving habits must first develop long-term spending habits. And doing so necessitates providing consumers with more assistance than just deposit reminders.”
“Labrador,” the initial edition of the Alvin app, is currently in private testing.
It includes M-Pesa cost tracking and the ability to construct a budget in two minutes, showing users how much they can spend each month on things like groceries, entertainment, and rent depending on their income and most important savings goal.
“Next, we’ll include card transaction tracking for Kenyan banks, as well as the opportunity to contribute to a high-yield savings account without leaving the Alvin app,” says the company.
“Alvin is ultimately intended to be your daily pocket companion, making it dead simple to feel in charge of your financial situation and on a clear route toward purchasing that piece of property,” Reid said.
The Alvin app will be available to the public in Kenya in the coming months, but the business has already set its sights on the rest of the world.
“We have immediate intentions to expand to Nigeria in the latter half of 2022, with powerhouses Ingressive Capital, Shola Akinlade, Voltron Capital, and Future Africa onboard,” Reid stated.
