Kenya

Standard Chartered-Backed Solv Launches Its B2B Marketplace in Kenya

B2B marketplace Solv has launched in Kenya to enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to access credit, e-commerce and business services.

Solv Kenya’s first product is supply chain financing, an invoice financing programme which facilitates connections and negotiations between verified MSMEs and financial institutions.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Bangalore, Solv first launched in India in December 2020 and has been growing rapidly in the country with over 220,000 MSME users on its platform.

The company last raised a US$40 million Series A funding round in mid-2022 led by Japan’s SBI Holdings, with participation from Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures.

Sheila Kimani

“We are very excited to go to market in a much bigger way now following a successful pilot of our initial product, Supply Chain Financing, which has seen over 3,000 MSMEs and more than 10 multinational companies participating and engaging on the platform,”

said Sheila Kimani, CEO, Solv Kenya.

Jiten Arora

“We set up Solv in India in 2020 to address Indian MSMEs’ key challenges by making access to commerce and financing a reality and soon became a trusted growth partner to MSMEs across the country. Now, in just under two years, we’re set to do the same in and for Kenya,”

said Jiten Arora, Member, SC Ventures.