Peach Cars, a Kenyan online marketplace for automobiles, has raised $5 million in seed funding, the company announced.
The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, based in Japan, led the funding round alongside other angel investors like Shintaro Yamada, Peter Kenevan, and Hiroaki Ohta.
Kaoru Kaganoi and Zachary Petroni founded the company in 2020 with the goal of making automobile ownership more accessible to the people of Kenya and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
I struggled to get affordable second-hand items, including furniture and electronics, according to CEO Kaoru Kaganoi. “There are no established inspection methods and service providers, and you need to know a good mechanic yourself to get these quality checks done at a personal level,” the Kaganoi continued. “I also struggled to find good condition vehicles.”
Kaganoi further pointed out that Africa’s young population and expanding middle class have yet to forge a deep bond with auto technicians and are searching for practical, dependable services to satisfy their needs.
The business asserts to have created a smart engine check device that makes use of Peach’s in-house produced software to automate its vehicle inspection procedure. As 80% of automobiles in Kenya are of Japanese manufacture, the 225-point inspection system, which is benchmarked against Japanese auto industry standards, provides a thorough and accurate report on all the systems in the vehicle.
On successful sales between vendors and buyers, the vehicle marketplace receives service fees and commissions. Value-added services including administrative work for agreements, inspections, ownership changes, secured payments, and handovers generate extra revenue streams for the company.
The additional funding will be used to extend the company’s technological solutions, hire more expertise, and step up R&D.
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