SHONA Capital lands $5M TLG debt facility to lend to Ugandan SMEs
What's the deal? Kampala-based SME lender SHONA Capital Limited has closed a $5 million debt facility from private credit firm TLG CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The Uganda-focused company uses proprietary technology to issue loans of $5,000 to $100,000 to underserved formal small and medium businesses.
What's the endgame? SHONA Capital is targeting a quadrupling of its loan book over the coming years and plans to deepen its reach across Uganda. The facility is also structured to attract additional institutional partners as the company expands.
Why now? SHONA Capital was founded in 2022 to address Uganda's $8.8 billion SME financing gap across food and agriculture, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing. It has since disbursed $6.5 million to more than 150 SMEs, generating 402 direct jobs; 51% of borrowers are women-owned or women-led, and 67% accessed institutional credit for the first time.
How it works: The lender automates onboarding, data processing, and credit assessment, disbursing within five to 10 days where traditional lenders can take weeks. The capital comes from TLG's Africa Growth Impact FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → II, and follows a facility the firm provided to SHONA Capital's Zambia arm earlier this year.
"They understand the businesses they serve and have built a platform capable of reaching them at pace," said Isha Doshi, co-founder and partner at TLG Capital.
The signal: The deal reflects growing appetite among private credit firms to back tech-enabled lenders closing the SME funding gap across sub-Saharan Africa, where banks and microfinance institutions have struggled to reach formal small businesses at speed.
Read more: Business Focus
