Tanzania Commercial Bank joins Ramani’s Financial Marketplace as its second capital partner to provide scalable supply chain financing to micro-distribution centres (MDCs) of leading Fast-Moving Consumer Goods brands such as Coca-Cola, Diageo, and AbinBev.

Launched in June 2023, Ramani’s Financial Marketplace is Tanzania’s first national-scale financing platform for SMBs. It leverages proprietary technology to digitise the entire lending process, simplifying origination, underwriting, monitoring, and collections.

Traditionally, African banks have struggled to support SMBs through financing due to their reliance on manual, paper-based operations, making underwriting and monitoring costly and inefficient.

By eliminating these barriers, Ramani’s Marketplace makes this process more accessible, scalable, and cost-effective, unlocking new growth opportunities for businesses.

Tanzania Commercial Bank joined the Marketplace, following Stanbic Bank’s partnership in 2024, providing SMBs with benefits, including a wider selection of loans, reduced fees, and improved repayment terms.

This expansion further strengthens Ramani’s Marketplace, positioning it as a resilient and diverse financing platform that supports key industries, including Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), cement, and fuel stations.

To date, Ramani has facilitated over $210 million in cumulative loans, with an average loan size of $47,000, and has disbursed $5 million through the Marketplace within a few months, having achieved a remarkable 136% month-on-month growth.

Ramani is rapidly transitioning from direct lending to a B2B e-commerce platform, aiming for a full transition by mid-2025.

Speaking on the partnership with Tanzania Commercial Bank, Iain Usiri, CEO & Co-Founder of Ramani, said,

“Supply chain financing has long been the Achilles’ heel of SMB growth, but Ramani is turning this challenge into an opportunity. Our Financial Marketplace is helping businesses access capital, expand operations, and remain competitive. Partnering with Tanzania Commercial Bank strengthens our existing relationship with Stanbic Bank. We’re the framework as a leading B2B Marketplace for SMBs across the continent and are committed to redefining financing while setting a new standard for financial accessibility in Africa.”

This partnership is set to enhance e-commerce services in Tanzania and across the wider East African region by improving access to financing for digital transactions.

With more businesses shifting to online platforms, reliable credit solutions are essential for scaling operations, managing inventory, and expanding distribution networks.

By providing SMBs with streamlined financial access, Ramani’s marketplace supports the digital economy, fostering innovation and sustainable growth within the region.

Jesse Jackson, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Tanzania Commercial Bank, stated,

“Joining Ramani’s Financial Marketplace marks a significant step in strengthening small and medium businesses across Tanzania. By improving access to scalable and affordable financing, Ramani is addressing the critical challenges that Tanzanian businesses face. At TCB, we understand that financial inclusion and innovation are key to economic progress. As Ramani continues to expand, we hope to see an impactful shift in how businesses access and utilise financing.”

Fredrick Max, Stanbic Bank Tanzania Head of Business & Commercial Banking said,

“At Stanbic Bank, we believe that Tanzania is our home, and we are committed to driving her growth. Since establishing our partnership with Ramani in 2024, we have scaled our support to SMBs, enabling them to access seamless financial solutions that enhance their growth and resilience. The remarkable growth of Ramani’s Financial Marketplace is a testament to its vision and innovative approach, and we are pleased to continue our support for an initiative that drives financial inclusion and empowers SMBs to thrive in the digital age. Looking ahead, we remain dedicated to expanding this impact, leveraging innovation to empower even more businesses and strengthen Tanzania’s digital economy.”

SMBs drive Africa’s economy but often struggle to secure financing, with over 50% of small businesses in Tanzania citing limited access to credit as a major barrier to growth, according to World Bank, 2024.

Ramani’s Marketplace is bridging this gap by providing a scalable digital solution that helps banks efficiently underwrite and manage loans, ensuring SMBs can access the capital needed to grow.

With Tanzania Commercial Bank as a capital partner, Ramani is advancing its mission to build an efficient financial ecosystem for SMBs, fostering job creation and economic growth across the continent.

The round was led by renowned global technology investors Flexcap Ventures and revered founder/CEO of Infoscout, Jared Schreiber.

Ramani also raised undisclosed seed funding in 2021 that included participation from Village Global, Goat Capital, Musha Ventures, Hustle Fund, Future Africa, Launch Africa Ventures, Raba capital, and renowned angel investor, James Beshara. Ramani was originally backed by Y combinator.

With this new capital funding, Ramani will scale its network of micro-distribution centres (MDCs) and also launch a new micro-credit offering for select MDCs.

Founded in 2019, Ramani is focused on fixing fragmented consumer goods supply chains that traditionally suffer from lack of data visibility and are burdened by limited access to financial services.

To address these challenges, Ramani provides tech-enabled inventory management systems, procurement, and point of sale software to digitise the processes of MDCs, helping them gain real-time sales insights and inventory visibility.

Ramani is then also able to leverage this data to offer up inventory with delayed payment terms, enabling them to scale. This year, the company acquired a lending license from the Central Bank of Tanzania to scale their customers further.

MDCs in Ramani’s network have been able to grow their revenues by at least 20% since subscribing and leveraging the platform’s diverse functionalities such as real time inventory tracking. The upcoming microcredit vertical will give qualified resellers access to interest free credit lines to help them manage their cash flow more efficiently. Ramani also plans to create ways in which everyday Africans are able to earn a passive income from the trillion dollar CPG industry by investing with the company.

Commenting on the Series A, Ramani CEO and Co-founder Iain Usiri said, “Ultimately, we want to make it easier for businesses to succeed in Africa and this new capital is another brick in that foundation. We’ve leveraged our Silicon Valley relationships and partnered with globally renowned investors, many of whom are successful founders themselves. We’re committed to repaying their faith in us and in Africa.”

Andrew Vigneault, Co-founder and General Partner of Flexcap Ventures added, “The CPG industry in Africa is being systematically transformed by Ramani’s huge ambition for a vastly improved and more efficient supply chain. It has been a pleasure to witness Ramani’s success and traction so far and we are certain the company will continue to achieve market-leading growth, fueled by a strong leadership team with exceptional technical expertise.”

Ramani was founded by brothers Iain and Calvin Usiri, and Kibet Martin who were born and raised in Tanzania and Kenya, respectively. They have backgrounds in Computer Science and Finance from Stanford, Google, Salesforce and CapGemini.

Their decision to return home to build an industry-defining product was buoyed by personal conviction to harness their skills and ingenuity and to solve local challenges.

Ramani joins other companies such as Wasoko, Tushop and Pando DAO to operate out of Silicon Zanzibar, the public-private initiative to attract and relocate tech companies and workers from across Africa and beyond to the island of Zanzibar.