DUKAPAQ was founded around a clear thesis

POST DATE: Saturday, February 28th, 2026

DUKAPAQ was founded around a clear thesis: small and medium-sized businesses are the largest and most underserved segment in global commerce, yet most fintech solutions fail to deliver clear, operator level ROI.

After deep on the ground development, we launched in Kenya last year. At the pre-seed stage, the most important signal has been early revenue and repeat usage, merchants paying recurring subscriptions and integrating DUKAPAQ into their daily operations, even in price-sensitive environments. DUKAPAQ has become a core system of record for operators, with measurable ROI driving retention and repeat customers.

That early traction led to inbound interest beyond our initial market, including from U.S. merchants. Those signals are now informing a measured U.S. market entry, focused on validating unit economics, refining distribution, and navigating regulatory requirements before scaling.

This week, we shared these learnings at Rice University through the Rice Student Venture Fund, discussing the practical realities of expanding a fintech platform across markets. The depth of engagement around fundamentals, economics, go-to-market, and risk was encouraging.

Houston, Texas offers a strong testing ground for this next phase given its commercial diversity. Our focus remains execution-driven: validating assumptions, closing early U.S. merchants, and building toward repeatable growth.

Grateful to the Rice Business community, our advisors JingYi Gao in attendance, and early investors Angelique Bartholomew, JD -Senior_VP_Executive Business Development Tracy Bates, MBA, PMP Brandon Price for supporting DUKAPAQ as we continue to test, learn, and build.