Ndovu, a Kenyan wealth-tech startup, has begun operations after securing a pre-seed funding round in October, with the goal of providing users with easy access to global financial markets.

Ndovu, which was founded in 2020 by Radhika Bhachu, Ro Nyangeri, and Gianpaolo De Biase and is available on iOS and Android, allows users to invest as little as KES5,000 (US$50) in local and global listed companies.

The startup, which participated in the Google for Startups accelerator program last year, was founded after realizing that existing investment options excluded the vast majority of people due to market access complexities and high management fees.

“Our concept arose from our desire to improve the financial lives of Africans.” Our vision is to equip every African, regardless of income or financial knowledge, with the tools they need to grow their wealth. “We believe that educating our people on how to make their money work for them will help us get one step closer to reducing poverty on the continent,” Bhachu said.

Ndovu, which is regulated by Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA), intends to onboard over a million users over the next three years by expanding into other countries. Keeping this in mind, it raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding in October of last year. The round was led by 4DX Ventures, Plug and Play Tech Center, Future Africa, and Oui Capital.

“Creating frictionless and low-cost investment products for all Africans remains an important mission in which we believe.” The Ndovu team is developing an innovative product to meet the core investment needs of an increasingly mobile first-generation African population. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with them in this next chapter,” said Walter Baddo, co-founder and general partner of 4DX Ventures.