Nairobi Fintech Flowt Secures Pre-Seed Funding to Scale Climate-Smart Business Credit

Nairobi-based fintech startup Flowt has completed the first close of its pre-seed funding round as it looks to expand access to working capital for climate-focused small businesses across Africa. The company secured backing from Delta40 Fund I and Impacc, alongside grant support from the Argidius Foundation, though the specific financial amount raised has not been publicly disclosed. Founded by Elana Laichena in Nairobi, Flowt is developing an artificial intelligence-powered financial intelligence platform designed to help small businesses become easier for lenders to assess. The company plans to pursue a second close alongside additional debt and repayable grant financing to grow its lending activities.

Flowt's technology analyzes financial information businesses already generate, including accounting records and bank transaction data, and converts it into structured information that can be used to evaluate cash flow and repayment capacity. The startup is targeting climate-smart businesses that may have viable operations but struggle to secure conventional loans because they lack collateral, extensive financial histories, or lender-ready financial statements. Flowt was developed within the Delta40 venture studio and has tested its approach with more than 15 prospective borrowers, identifying a pre-qualified lending pipeline estimated at between $1 million and $2 million.

The startup has already issued its first working-capital facility to GreenBay, a Kenyan circular-commerce business that refurbishes and resells household appliances and solar products. To assess GreenBay, Flowt integrated with the company's accounting system and analyzed banking information to evaluate its financial position and repayment capacity. Potential customers operate in areas including renewable energy, green manufacturing, climate-smart agriculture, and clean cooking. The new backing will help Flowt deploy more working capital in Kenya while continuing to develop the financial data infrastructure it hopes will make African small businesses more accessible to lenders and investors.

Rather than relying mainly on physical collateral, Flowt's model aims to use verified transaction histories and business financial data to make smaller loans faster and more economical to assess. This approach addresses the structural friction that prevents viable green enterprises from securing the growth capital required to scale operations. By transforming unstructured accounting and banking records into standardized credit metrics, the platform bridges the information gap between traditional financial institutions and high-potential ventures operating in emerging sectors across the region.

Why This Matters

Access to credit remains a primary operational bottleneck for early-stage enterprises operating in sustainable industries across emerging markets. Conventional lending frameworks heavily prioritize physical collateral and long audited financial histories, systematically excluding viable ventures in renewable energy, circular commerce, and clean cooking. By deploying artificial intelligence to structure existing digital transaction data, fintech models like Flowt create alternative verification pathways that reduce risk assessment costs for financial institutions while unlocking critical liquidity for underserved operators.

This data-driven approach shifts the underwriting paradigm from asset-heavy security toward cash flow visibility and operational performance. For regional economies, expanding working capital access for climate-smart enterprises directly accelerates the deployment of green infrastructure and sustainable commercial solutions. As institutional investors and venture funds increasingly target climate impact, scalable credit infrastructure serves as the foundational mechanism required to channel capital efficiently to the businesses driving transition on the ground.

Opportunities

• Financiers and Lenders: Access a pre-qualified pipeline of climate-focused small businesses with verified cash flow data to deploy debt capital efficiently.
• Climate-Smart Operators: Secure working capital financing without traditional physical collateral by leveraging existing accounting and banking records.
• Technology Integrators: Collaborate on API integrations with accounting and banking systems to enhance financial data structuring for automated credit assessments.

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