“Can asset finance and digital credit profiling for Africa's informal-sector MSMEs become the foundation of a full financial ecosystem for the unbanked?”
Founded in 2012 as a motorcycle lease-to-own company for informal-sector riders in Uganda, Tugende scaled its asset finance model by combining technology with customer support to build verifiable digital credit profiles for unbanked MSMEs. The company expanded into Kenya and pursued decentralized credit (Goldfinch) as a funding mechanism in 2021, but defaulted on that $5M loan in 2023 — reflecting the difficulty of scaling informal-sector lending across multiple East African markets. The company has repositioned around a broader digital platform for MSMEs encompassing financing, credit profiling, and value-added services, now operating across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Tugende was founded by Michael Wilkerson and is founded in 2012, headquartered in Kampala, Uganda.
Tugende has raised $76.8M in total (latest round: Series A extension, March 2021).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Tugende and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.