Numida is trying to help 1 million small business owners prosper across the African continent.
Across Africa, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 90 per cent of the private sector and provide 80 per cent of jobs, making them a crucial cog in the economies of countries on the continent.
Headquartered in Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city, Numida is a lending firm, providing working capital loans to African SMEs.
Working capital is dispersed via mobile phones, with loan sizes ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Interest rates are between 10 per cent and 16 per cent.
Since its $2.3m seed funding round concluded in April last year, Numida has issued $20m in working capital to SMEs. Sizes in unsecured credit have risen from $250,000 per month to $2m.
Numida CEO Mina Shahid told TechCrunch: "I'm most excited about continuing to build and provide financial products for these micro and small business owners who have been forgotten by the financial services industry".
With the pre-series funding round, Numida hopes to double its client base to 40,000 within the next 18 months.
According to Numida's website, the lending firm anticipates it will enable at least 1 million African small business owners to "achieve their dreams".
Serena Ventures, with participation from Breega, 4Di Capital, Launch Africa Soma Capital and Y Combinator raised $12.3m in a pre-series A round.
Launched in 2014, Serene Ventures has focused its investment efforts on under-represented founders, with 53 per cent of funding recipients going to women-led projects and 47 and 12 per cent going to black and Latino founders.