Grace Ashiru
Kenyan asset-financing company Watu has secured a $7 million debt facility from AHL Venture Partners, giving the business additional capital to expand its mobility and smartphone-financing activities across African markets.
The deal extends a financing relationship between the two companies that dates back to 2022 and provides Watu with additional working capital as it continues expanding its loan portfolio.
Founded in 2015, Watu has built its business around financing assets that can support mobility, connectivity and income generation. Its mobility operation provides financing for motorcycles and three-wheelers, while Watu Simu enables customers to acquire smartphones through instalment-based financing.
The company has also started increasing its exposure to electric mobility by financing electric motorcycles in selected African markets.
Unlike an equity investment, the $7 million facility is non-dilutive. This allows Watu to gain access to fresh capital without issuing new shares to AHL, helping existing shareholders avoid dilution while giving the company more money to deploy into customer financing.
Watu operates across several African markets and has also expanded beyond the continent. The company says it has originated more than seven million loans since launch, demonstrating the scale it has reached in providing asset-backed credit to customers who may have limited access to conventional banking services.
The transaction also reflects AHL Venture Partners’ growing focus on private credit in Africa. Through its Africa Credit Fund I, the investment firm provides structured debt capital to businesses that may be too mature for conventional venture funding but still face difficulty securing suitable financing from commercial banks.
For Watu, the additional debt facility provides more lending capacity without changing the company’s ownership structure.
That capital can be recycled into financing more motorcycles, smartphones and other productive assets while supporting the company’s expansion into new markets and emerging areas such as electric mobility.
The financing also illustrates the growing importance of debt alongside venture equity in Africa’s technology ecosystem, particularly for companies with established revenue streams and predictable repayment models.
