Rwazi, a market intelligence startup based in Wilmington, Delaware, has raised $4 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Bonfire Ventures, with participation from Newfund Capital and Alumni Ventures. Rwazi plans to use the funds to support its expansion plans and planned product launches.
Founded in 2021 by Joseph Rutakangwa and Eric Sewankambo, Rwazi provides a market intelligence platform to multinational consumer goods companies. The platform collects data from developing markets on product usage, frequency of consumption, household budgets, and income, based on the needs of its SaaS product users. Rwazi utilizes a network of qualified mappers spread across urban 40+ countries in Africa and South Asia to collect data from their localities. Rwazi’s mission is to build data infrastructure to connect developing markets to the global market.
Rwazi’s platform provides actionable data to multinational corporations that track more than 200 different products across sectors including fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, telecommunications, and financial services. Its customers include 18 multinational corporations. The startup is scaling in emerging markets, including Africa, where it claims to already have a presence in 40 countries, and is available in other markets like South Asia and Latin America.
Rwazi plans to expand its business in emerging markets with the funds raised from its recent seed funding round. The startup is also planning to roll out new products this year that support different languages to support its growth in these regions. Rwazi’s current network of 50,000 consumers is expected to grow as it expands its operations in emerging markets.
