SOUTH AFRICA – Online marketplace for home services that connects home service professionals to customers, tools, and digital financial services in South Africa Kandua, has received undisclosed funding from Global Catalyst Fund to drive growth in South Africa and increase its product portfolio.

Just like the US-based marketplace Task Rabbit, Kandua hopes of ending the risk associated with hiring small, independent contractors who do home renovations, maintenance and repairs in South Africa and helps bring transparency in two-communication, invoicing and payments.

Kandua was founded in 2015 by Arjun Khoosal and Sayo Folawiyo.

With the funding Kandua.com aims to build a new market ecosystem for local services by revolutionizing access between skilled and vetted gig workers and customers.

In its business model, customers are not charged any fee when using the Kandua platform.

However, the service providers are asked to pay a small fee that enhances them to be linked with the relevant clients and in order to be connected with a service provider, Kandua asks the client to provide their contact information as well as answer a few questions based on the client’s needs.

The customers’ contact information is stored securely and only shared with a maximum of five service providers and the client can go ahead and get in touch with the service provider of their choice and give them a quote.

“With the funding Kandua.com aims to build a new market ecosystem for local services by revolutionizing access between skilled and vetted gig workers and customers”

When the Pros get in touch with the customer, they go ahead and share their contact information as well as a link to their Kandua profile whereby the client can see photos and reviews of their work.

All the service providers in Kandua are screened and vetted before they are recommended to a homeowner or by one of the Kandua’s trusted service providers.

In order to verify the identities of these service providers, Kandua uses the Huru platform.Another verification process is the checking of the criminal background of the service provider as well as a look out for the badge on their profiles.

Kandua calls the references of the service providers and their experiences are posted online. Only Pros with an average rating of 4 stars and to make it through and by spending time meeting with the service providers, Kandua can decide if they make the cut.

In an instance that the client finds another person to do the work, they can make it known on the Kandua platform and later check their email from Kandua for a link to freeze their job as this will notify the pros that you no longer need new quotes .

If a client has already connected with numerous pros; they are under no obligation to accept a quote. As a client, one is supposed to let the pros know of an alternative agreement and it is in order to contact the pros to avoid them having to pay a fee that is asked   when giving   quotes to clients.

 Having facilitated tens of thousands of projects, Kandua assures that they provide fair prices.

Kandua has analysed over 30,000 quotes and pre-negotiated prices down with the biggest base of vetted service providers in South Africa.

Customers are also encouraged to make reviews on Kandua as it helps great local businesses familiarize themselves and find more clients.

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