Kenyan startup Ndovu Wealth is an AI-powered, regulated DeFi bridge for African capital markets – a CMA-licensed platform integrating with mobile money that unifies access to pan-African investments, global stocks and ETFs, and crypto through tokenisation infrastructure.
Founded in 2022 by Radhika Bhachu and Rogito Nyageri, Ndovu combines regulatory compliance with blockchain technology in a bid to transform fragmented, illiquid, expensive markets into a unified 24/7 investment platform.
“Prior to Ndovu, the everyday African could not access global markets with as little as US$50, despite Africans being global citizens,” Bhachu told Disrupt Africa. “The traditional options available in the market required high investment amounts, had long account opening processes, and were expensive.”
Despite over US$53 billion in annual remittances to Africa and US$200 billion in on-chain activity across Sub-Saharan Africa, this massive capital pool remains trapped outside productive investments. African and diaspora investors face a perfect storm of barriers – fragmented markets across borders, prohibitive FX costs, severe illiquidity, the operational burden of managing multiple platforms for different asset classes, and the constraints of traditional market hours that don’t align with global diaspora schedules.
“The result is a paradoxical disconnect where enormous capital sits uninvested, while Africa’s fastest-growing digital economy lacks institutional bridges to channel this wealth into tangible opportunities,” Bhachu said.
Coming from the asset management industry, where she could easily access investing from her phone, she set out to solve this problem. The result is Ndovu, which utilises advanced technologies like AI and blockchain with the necessary regulatory compliance to link modern finance with the traditional, and increase access to investments for Africans.
Ndovu serves clients from 43 countries around the world. It has more than 200,000 users, and more than US$10.5 million of assets under management. It currently has over US$21 million in cumulative deposits. Currently operating in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, Bhachu said it plans further expansion.
“Ndovu is acquiring fund management licenses in Zambia, DRC, Ethiopia and Angola for expansion in the short term,” she said.
The startup secured a US$2.3 million pre-seed round in October 2023, with investors including 4DX Ventures, Plug & Play, Enza Capital, Mercy Corp Ventures, Future Africa, and Oui Capital. Bhachu said it operates a diversified revenue model designed to capture value across the investment lifecycle while maintaining alignment with client growth.
“Our primary revenue stream provides stable recurring income scaled based on portfolio size and product complexity, ensuring direct alignment with client wealth growth across our KES 1.3 billion in managed assets,” she said, adding that Ndovu also charges transaction, FX and subscription fees.
“This multi-stream approach creates revenue resilience across market cycles – AUM fees provide stable recurring income, transaction fees scale with market activity, FX fees capitalise on our regional infrastructure, and subscriptions build predictable revenue independent of market volatility,” Bhachu said.
One key learning from Ndovu’s launch and expansion was that Africans don’t like “free” items.
“Ndovu came to market with the Robinhood philosophy, charging only one per cent in assets under management fee,” said Bhachu. “The market perceived Ndovu to be a scam as traditional asset managers charge 2-5 per cent in AUM fees. Ndovu increased the AuM fee to 2-4.5 per cent to become more competitive and experienced high inflows as a result.”
When dealing with money, she said, this market remains traditional.
“Technology is an enabler, however customer acquisition and conversion remains led by relationship managers. This approach doubled Ndovu’s sign up to conversion rate,” Bhachu said.
Regulatory compliance is key to Ndovu’s successful approach, yet regulations in African markets remain difficult to navigate.
