Rwazi raises $12M Series A to help companies with consumer insights and intelligence

Joseph Rutakanga, after eight years of searching fruitlessly for robust tools to gather consumer insight data for businesses, took matters into his own hands. Alongside co-founder Eric Sewankambo, he launched Rwazi in 2021, a startup now making waves in market intelligence.

The Nairobi and Delaware-based firm has successfully closed a $12 million Series A funding round, spearheaded by Bonfire Ventures. This significant investment is earmarked to bolster Rwazi’s mission of providing unparalleled consumer insights and market intelligence, addressing a critical gap in global data accessibility.

Rutakangwa highlighted the stark disparity in available data. While regions like the U.S., UK, and parts of Western Europe boast an abundance of consumer and market-level data, economically powerful nations such as India, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Turkey, and China often suffer from a severe lack of usable insights. “No real picture on consumption, what consumers wanted, or how their behavior was shifting,” he explained in an interview with TechCrunch, pinpointing the void Rwazi aims to fill.

Initially, Rutakangwa explored acquiring statistics from government trade agencies, but this proved ineffective due to outdated, fragmented, or non-existent data. Consumer reports, another avenue, were frequently found to be inaccurate or lacking verifiable proof.

This led to a pivotal realization: the solution wasn’t in traditional surveys or panels. It was in what Rwazi now champions as “zero-party data”—consumption data voluntarily shared by consumers within their daily routines, captured and validated using advanced systems across diverse locations in real-time.

Leveraging this innovative approach, Rwazi has developed an AI-powered intelligence software system that grants businesses real-time visibility into their consumer markets. This sophisticated tool not only helps predict consumer behavior but also identifies crucial areas for strategic focus, thereby aiding companies in reducing customer acquisition costs and significantly boosting customer loyalty. Rwazi’s impressive client roster already includes global giants such as Coca-Cola, Pampers, Visa, and Nestle, underscoring its impact.

The current $12 million Series A round follows a successful $4 million seed round raised in 2022, also led by Bonfire Ventures, demonstrating continued investor confidence in Rwazi’s disruptive technology and market potential. Other investors participating in this latest round include Santa Barbara Ventures, Newfund, and Alumni Ventures.

Rutakangwa described the fundraising process as “selective,” emphasizing their focus on securing partners who genuinely understood the depth of the problem Rwazi is solving. The fresh capital will be strategically deployed to scale its AI co-pilot, empowering clients with more accurate real-time decision-making capabilities. Furthermore, Rwazi plans to expand its engineering team and continue building robust infrastructure to capture the ever-evolving landscape of consumer data. Currently, Rwazi pulls data from 190 countries, primarily serving clients in the U.S. and Europe.

While Rwazi operates in a competitive landscape against established consumer insights firms like GFK and Ipsos, Rutakangwa asserts a clear differentiator. Unlike its competitors who often rely on modeled or inferred data, Rwazi’s proprietary infrastructure enables both deep insight and actionable execution—providing not just what to know, but also what to do about it. “Winning today means anticipating shifts, seeing around corners, and making confident moves before the competition even senses a change,” he concluded, highlighting Rwazi’s strategic edge in a dynamic market.