The startup has secured a $6 million seed investment, backed by Algebra Ventures and Quona Capital, to build a solid infrastructure that bridges the gap between banks, fintechs, and merchants.

Enza is a payment processor that presents itself as the missing link in Africa’s financial sector. While established giants like Flutterwave and Moniepoint have focused on merchant acquiring, Enza is targeting both sides of the transaction—helping banks issue payments while also enabling merchants to accept them seamlessly. The startup’s first markets are Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa, three of Africa’s biggest financial hubs.

The company’s strategy includes making transactions more accessible and helping banks and fintechs build lasting relationships with small businesses. Once those businesses are plugged into the system, banks can offer additional services—loans, savings, insurance, and more.

“Payments are the gateway,” says Andrew Key, an executive director at Enza. “But the value is in the data and the services you can layer on top.”

This approach comes at a time when African banks are realising they have surrendered too much ground to fintechs. For years, startups have taken the lead in serving small and medium-sized businesses, leaving traditional banks struggling to catch up. Now, Enza wants to provide banks with the technology they need to reclaim their competitive edge.

“Banks have realised they gave up too much ground to fintechs,” Houston said. “We want to give them the tech to compete and win it back.”

One of Enza’s key advantages is its deep integration with both local and global payment networks. The company’s system connects with regional card schemes like Nigeria’s Verve, Egypt’s Meeza, and Africa-wide AfriGo, alongside international giants Visa and Mastercard. It also links to real-time payment networks such as NIBSS (Nigeria), PayShap (South Africa), and InstaPay (Egypt), as well as mobile money platforms, QR codes, and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services.

Transparency is another huge focus. Many banks find it hard to monitor what their payment aggregator partners or downstream merchants are doing. Enza claims its platform will give banks better oversight of their payment ecosystems, ensuring compliance while allowing them to scale.

Despite launching operations just last year, Enza has already secured over 10 million monthly transactions across six African markets: Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda, and South Africa. The company’s transaction volume is growing at an impressive 35% to 40% per month, with expectations to double within two years.

Enza’s founders aren’t newcomers to the industry. Fekry previously served as chief commercial officer at Emerging Markets Payments (EMP), which was acquired by Network International, where he later became managing director. Between them, the Enza leadership team has worked with nearly 200 banks, but this time, they’re focusing on quality over quantity.

“We’re not trying to replicate that scale,” Houston explained. “We’re targeting 30 to 40 high-quality bank relationships.”

The startup was self-funded in its early days before turning to external investors. Rather than chasing widespread interest, the founders opted for a more strategic funding approach, bringing Algebra Ventures and Quona Capital on board.

“The Enza leadership team has an impressive track record of starting, growing, and exiting fintech businesses across the continent,” said Tarek Assaad, managing partner at Algebra Ventures.

Other top-tier investors participating in the round include Accion Venture Lab, Musha Ventures, Quona Capital, and existing investors CRE Ventures.

Unlike other platforms designed for developed markets that rely on email infrastructure and tailored for developed markets, SUKHIBA was built for the unique needs of emerging markets. 

It focuses on the predominant use of WhatsApp as an operating system and customizes its services of sales, marketing, customer service, payments and more around the WhatsApp infrastructure.

Traditionally, manufacturers and distributors supplying small and medium enterprises (SMEs) rely on physical visits and scattered WhatsApp messages to drive order generation and oversee logistics, often resulting in stockouts and lost sales. 

SUKHIBA’s seamless, WhatsApp-based communication platform integrates inventory ordering, payments, trade credit, delivery, and customer relationships. By enabling manufacturers and distributors to push shopping carts to wholesalers and retailers, SUKHIBA reduces order delays and time spent managing inventory. 

This helps SMEs maintain stock levels and also increases their sales, improving overall productivity and efficiency.

SUKHIBA has achieved commendable growth since 2023 and today operates in eight markets across Africa and India, working with top-tier manufacturers, distributors, leading retail chains, and D2C brands. 

More than 35,000 SMEs are already purchasing products and services through its merchant partners. SUKHIBA can scale seamlessly by integrating various payment companies and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, such as SAP, ERPNext, Shopify, WooCommerce etc.

The newly secured funds will be key in accelerating SUKHIBA’s expansion across Africa and other emerging markets. 

The company’s vision is supported by marquee customers and investors, reflecting confidence in its potential to become the default CRM and sales force automation tool for emerging markets.

Ananth Gudipati, co-founder and CEO of SUKHIBA, said: “SUKHIBA is designed to bridge the gap between brands, manufacturers, distributors, and their customers in emerging markets by leveraging the ubiquitous nature of WhatsApp. This seed extension marks a significant milestone for us, enabling us to scale our operations and enhance our SaaS platform to better serve our growing customer base of manufacturers, distributors and D2C brands.” 

Manish Phulwani, associate director at EQ2 Ventures, added: “Our follow-on investment in SUKHIBA is a strong vote of confidence, having witnessed the team’s consistent execution since the early days. Their exceptional product mindset is rare, positioning them to lead the transition of business and consumer transactions to WhatsApp across emerging markets. We look forward to continuing this journey with the team.”

According to Amee Parbhoo, managing partner, Accion Venture Lab: “We see that small retailers in emerging markets are reliant on in-person interactions to manage their day-to-day commerce.  

SUKHIBA’s  innovative platform can streamline many processes for small and medium enterprises as well as large manufacturers and distributors — from integrating inventory management and payment processing to trade credit, logistics, and customer engagement; all within the familiar interface of WhatsApp, helping improve the client experience and boost productivity.”