1.5M Kianda Investment Cracks the Code for Businesses
17th October 2021
Kianda Technologies “Kianda” has raised €1.5M investment from Kernel Capital through the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund II, alongside Enterprise Ireland.
Kianda’s no-code / low-code application development platform is enabling an increasing number of organisations to bridge the digital skills gap and keep pace with new demands and growth within their respective industries by allowing users with or without coding skills to digitise business processes such as approval workflows, inspections checklists, employee onboarding amongst others. This funding will generate new employment in expanding the Kianda team, and help develop their growing global clientele.
The surge in remote working driven by the pandemic has accelerated the demand for digital transformation empowered by low-code/no-code development technologies. According to Forrester, the market for low-code development tech is projected to total $21.2 billion in 2022. These technologies enable businesses to take full control over their move to digital without extensive knowledge of coding.
Kianda are digitising everyday business tasks and processes faster than ever before whilst bringing benefits to organisations including:
•Reducing costs and development times related to delivering digital solutions
•Eliminating inefficiencies by streamlining business processes
•Empowering staff to take control of their solutions whilst increasing their productivity
On this significant investment, Kianda founder Derya Sousa said: “Our vision is to grow our company and become a market leader in no-code development.
Our motto is ‘we are makers’ and we want to empower people with or without tech skills to become makers like us and address their digitalisation needs themselves.”
Kianda founders CEO Osvaldo Sousa and COO Derya Sousa have strong expertise in software design, sales & deployment with over two decades of industry experience. The promoters are originally from Angola and Turkey respectively, relocating to Ireland in 2007. Kianda Co-Founder and COO Derya Sousa is a passionate advocate for Women in STEM and has spoken extensively on the topic at conferences and business events, earning her place on the 2021 shortlist for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ for Women in IT.
Since their launch in November 2017, Kianda has been supporting over 25,000 users in their clients including Deme Group, Mercury, Uniphar, Resco Products Inc. and Aji Bio Pharma. Kianda is a company on a positive growth trajectory with an excellent product, strong team and ‘blue-chip’ clients based in the UK, US, Belgium and Australia. Currently operating with a team of ten employees, Kianda plans to double the team size by early 2022.
Kernel Capital, Managing Partner, Niall Olden said: “We are delighted to see our Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund II lead this investment in Kianda Technologies, a solid company ideally placed to capitalise on the acceleration in digital transformation as the remote / hybrid working environment takes hold.”
Earlier this year, Kianda won Ireland’s Best Export in the National Enterprise Awards with over 60% of their revenue being generated from exports. Other awards include NTMA Entrepreneur in Residence Programme 2020, and Fingal Enterprise Awards. To celebrate their 4th year in business, Kianda recently partnered with Camara Education, donating €1 for every follower they received. Co-founder Derya Sousa was spokesperson for their recent sponsorship of the Dublin Ongar Chasers Girls U14s basketball team.
Manager High Potential Start Ups (ICT), Enterprise Ireland, Niall McEvoy said: “Kianda is a great example of an innovative early stage start-up that has grasped an emerging market opportunity. The continuous drive towards digitisation offers significant potential for Kianda to scale and disrupt across multiple sectors. We look forward to continuing to support the team at Kianda as they grow the business across global markets.”
Pictured Kianda Technologies, founders CEO Osvaldo Sousa and COO Derya Sousa (image: Andres Poveda).
