Pre-Seed Round · Fintech Infrastructure · East Africa
2 million boda riders across Kenya earn real income every day yet remain completely invisible to every bank, lender and insurer on the continent. Imara Rider is the infrastructure layer that changes that. Permanently.
Market Catalyst
A landmark court ruling just made every bad loan in Kenya catastrophically expensive. The entire lending industry is now desperate for exactly what Imara built.
What Lenders Now Face Without Imara
The Problem
Kenya's boda boda riders earn real income daily yet banks, SACCOs and insurers have no way to verify it. An entire workforce locked out because the infrastructure to see them never existed.
Kenya's boda boda workforce generates billions in economic activity annually yet carries zero verifiable income documentation that any formal institution will accept.
Without verified earnings history, formal lenders will not engage informal workers. Those who qualify face predatory interest rates of 30 to 60 percent monthly from shylocks.
The informal transport sector represents a decade-long missed opportunity. The infrastructure to capture it simply did not exist until Imara Rider.
The problem is not that boda riders cannot repay loans. The problem is nobody built the infrastructure to prove they can.
Kelvin Mwangi · Founder and CEO
Current Reality For A Rider
How It Works
Every trip processed through our motion-forensic AI, verifying real riding behavior, building a financial profile and generating a Loan Readiness Score that lenders trust.
Rider logs journey via PWA, fully offline capable. Accelerometer and gyroscope capture authentic riding motion signature for every trip.
Offline-First · PWAImara Guard analyzes motion forensics to confirm genuine riding. Cannot be spoofed from a stationary device or desk anywhere.
Motion Forensics · AIImara Intelligence builds earnings profiles from verified trips, consistency, reliability and income patterns into a full financial identity.
Vertex AI · BigQueryBanks and SACCOs query our B2B API to receive verified Loan Readiness Scores in real time, unlocking credit for real riders.
B2B API · Real-TimeTechnology Stack
Production infrastructure deployed and running. Not a prototype. Every component designed for low connectivity, high mobile usage and the realities of the informal economy.
Proprietary algorithm analyzes accelerometer and gyroscope patterns to distinguish genuine riding from stationary input. First of its kind in African fintech.
Proprietary IPReal-time trip verification that processes motion data, assigns trust scores and flags anomalies before they enter the intelligence pipeline. Live and firing.
Cloud Functions · LiveML-powered earnings profiler on Vertex AI and Gemini. Processes verified trip data into structured financial identity profiles with Loan Readiness Scores.
Vertex AI · Gemini · LiveRiders log trips without internet. Data syncs automatically when connection returns. Zero data loss in Kenya's low-connectivity environments. Designed for the field.
IndexedDB · PWAClean REST API enabling banks, SACCOs and microfinance institutions to query verified rider creditworthiness in real time. Per-query revenue model built in.
Firebase · REST · LiveFirebase App Check, multi-layer authentication, M-Pesa integration and BigQuery data warehouse. Institutional-grade architecture from day one, not added later.
App Check · BigQuery · M-PesaMarket Opportunity
Kenya alone has 2 million boda riders. East Africa has 6 million. Nigeria's okada market adds another 2 million. Imara's infrastructure requires no rebuild to cross borders, only deployment.
Phase 1 · Kenya
2M+ riders. World's most sophisticated mobile money market. M-Pesa integration live. Starting Nairobi, expanding nationally within 12 months.
Phase 2 · East Africa
Uganda 500K riders. Tanzania 800K riders. Rwanda growing fast. Same infrastructure, new markets, zero rebuild required.
Phase 3 · West Africa
Nigeria's okada market at 2M+ riders. The data moat compounds with every new market entered and every rider onboarded.
Revenue Model
Multiple monetization layers built into the architecture from day one. Each stream grows independently as the rider base scales across the continent.
Imara Rider is free for all riders. Premium riders pay a monthly fee to unlock priority loan access, faster credit scoring, advanced financial insights and exclusive features. Free tier grows the network. Premium tier monetizes it.
Banks, SACCOs and microfinance institutions pay per query to access verified rider credit signals in real time. Post KRA ruling, lenders need this data more than ever. High margin institutional revenue that compounds with every lender onboarded.
Anonymized economic intelligence on Africa's informal workers licensed to Bolt, Uber, Google, Microsoft, the World Bank and African governments. The most comprehensive informal sector dataset on the continent.
Lenders pay Imara a small premium per loan. Imara covers a portion of the principal if the rider defaults. Post KRA ruling, every defaulted principal hits lender profits directly. Imara sells them peace of mind backed by its own data.
Becoming Africa's first licensed informal sector credit bureau. CRB Afrika, Metropol and Transunion have zero data on informal workers. Imara fills that gap with 10 million verified financial profiles. Every institution pays to access the database.
Imara becomes the lender. Using its own CBK lending license, Imara disburses loans via M-Pesa and collects repayments through daily earnings. Better data than any bank in Kenya means lower defaults and keeping all the interest.
Pre-Seed Round · Open Now · 2026
Raising $500KFunding onboarding of 500 verified riders across 3 Nairobi regions, closing the first lender API agreement and proving the full revenue model within 90 days of close.
Get In Touch
We are speaking with a select group of investors who understand African infrastructure. Request the full 20-document data room below.