Rwazi

Rwazi, Inc. is a software company based in Los Angeles, California, that focuses on  market intelligence and consumer insights. The company helps multinational companies in understanding the global consumer market, especially, African, South Asian and Latin American consumer market.

About
The company was founded in 2021 by Joseph Rutakangwa and Eric Sewankambo. Their vision was to offer organizations access to consumer insights from global markets, especially in emerging regions of African market, that is cash-based due to mistrust on the banking sector. Around 90% of the African market's retails sector is cash-based, Rwazi wanted to present around a billion consumers of the Africa into a database for understanding the market trends.

How it works
The data on the Rwazi is gathered by the residents, retailers and consumers, of the locality, called mappers. Mappers gather data from the traditional retailers, the mappers turn even the offline business activities into online data on the Rwazi app for which they are paid. Companies subscribe to the Rwazi for getting the real time data regarding the business transaction.

Funding
The company has recently raised $4 million led by Bonfire Ventures and backed by Newfund, Alumni Ventures and Techstars.

Awards

 * 2019 - Southern Africa Startup Awards - Brave Founder of the Year
 * 2021 - Global Startup Awards winner in Commerce Tech Category
 * 2023 - Innovator in Trade by L.A. Area Chamber and World Trade Week Southern California Committee.