Imali· Product 01← All products
Fintech · 5 African markets · Live pilot · Pre-seed

The WhatsApp business OS.

Track income, expenses, invoices, inventory and taxes through a WhatsApp message. Built for Africa’s 6M+ informal businesses, proven first in South Africa’s 1.6 million (FinScope MSME 2024). Works in English, isiZulu and isiXhosa. Live since April 2026 — now live in South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Built end-to-end, with 1,400+ tests passing. Pre-seed.

Free forever plan60-second setupSARS tax prepPOPIA compliantNo app download
Open imali.ebenworks.coPartner with us
Imali on WhatsApp: an April 2026 monthly business report
02 · What it does§ 02

Six things. All in WhatsApp. Nothing to download.

Track money & tax

Log income, expenses, invoices and inventory by typing or saying it. SARS-aligned categories. Turnover Tax–ready (R600K tax-free / R2.3M ceiling, effective 1 April 2026).

Natural-language logging

English, isiZulu, isiXhosa. “Ngithengise izinkwa ezintathu ngama-rand angama-45.” Logged. Same message in English: “Sold 3 loaves of bread for 45 rand.”

Receipt OCR

Send a photo of a supplier receipt, even a faded, handwritten one. Imali reads the line items, tax and totals and books them.

Summaries & PDF reports

Friday afternoon: where you stand, in plain English. A monthly PDF for the books, the bank, or a lender.

Multi-country, multi-currency

Live in South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe — each on its own currency and tax regime, auto-detected from the merchant’s WhatsApp number. 21 currencies supported under the hood, with daily ECB rates. Proven first in South Africa.

Designed for credit

Six months of records produces a profile a lender can read. That credit-signal layer is built, designed to turn cash businesses into creditworthy ones, but no loan has been originated yet and no lender is signed.

03 · In the merchant’s hand§ 03
Imali welcome flow on WhatsApp
Imali main menu on WhatsApp
Imali monthly view on WhatsApp
04 · The detail
Pricing
Free forever · Starter and Premium priced per country (R29 / R99 in South Africa)
Stage
Live pilot since April 2026 — now live in South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Pre-seed.
Compliance
POPIA-first · FICA · NCA s70 framing on the lending API · SARS-aligned categories in South Africa, with local tax-regime logic for Botswana, Nigeria and Kenya · TLS 1.3 in transit · AES-256 at rest
Under the hood
LLM natural-language parsing and a receipt-OCR pipeline; FastAPI + Postgres on the WhatsApp Cloud API. Supports 21 currencies, live in 5 today.
Site
imali.ebenworks.co
Read the round →What else we build →
05 · The one-pager§ 05
Imali one-pager: the WhatsApp business OS for South Africa — track income, expenses, invoices, inventory and taxes by message, with a four-step flow and a free WhatsApp start

The whole product on one page. Tap to view full size.

06 · Questions§ 06
What is Imali?

Imali is a WhatsApp business OS for Africa's informal merchants. It handles bookkeeping, invoices, inventory and local tax prep through a WhatsApp message, in English, isiZulu and isiXhosa — no app to download. Live in South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe, proven first in South Africa.

How much does Imali cost?

There is a free plan in every market. Starter and Premium are priced per country — R29/R99 per month in South Africa, with local pricing in Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Which countries and currencies does Imali support?

Imali is live in South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe, each on its own currency and tax regime, auto-detected from the merchant's WhatsApp number. The platform supports 21 currencies under the hood, with daily ECB rates. isiZulu and isiXhosa are South-Africa-only for now; other live countries are English-only.

Is Imali available now?

Yes — it's a live pilot since April 2026, now live in South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The company is raising pre-seed.

Does Imali give out loans?

Not yet. Imali is designed to turn cash businesses into creditworthy ones, and the credit-signal layer is built, but no loan has been originated and no lender is signed.