The news: 

• Nigerian-born Prembly, a company that offers customer identity solutions, has merged with Peleza, a Kenyan identity management startup, to form the Prembly Group. 
• Meanwhile, Peleza has been using Prembly’s infrastructure for the last year and a half. 
• Both startups have declined to disclose the specific financial details of the transaction.

Prembly, established in 2015, provides its customers with identity verification, security, and compliance, while Peleza, founded in 2015, handles background checks for businesses. 

Prembly raised a $2.8 million seed round in 2022. Peleza has ongoing partnerships in East Africa with e-hailing platforms — Bolt and Uber — and US multinational logistics corporation, FedEx. 

The newly formed Prembly Group plans to use this merger to build a bigger business in East Africa by leveraging Peleza’s industry knowledge and improving customer service offerings. 

As Marita Mutemi, Pelexa’s CEO and Co-founder, told Techcabal, “This merger serves as an extension of that collaboration and our longstanding partnership, providing an opportunity to expand service offerings to customers across various markets and globally.” 

Lanre Ogungbe, the co-founder and CEO of Prembly, notes that both companies coming together will significantly increase the Group’s options and value, making it the continent's most used identity management service provider. 

Following the merger, Ogungbe will assume the position of CEO of Prembly Group while Mutemi will join the group as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as well as the CEO of Prembly East Africa. 

Mutemi clarified that other Peleza executives have been duly reassigned, adding that they will retain their leadership roles in the new organisation to ensure “continuity and stability.”

Although the merger accounts for a combined staff of about 100, Ogungbe and Marita disclosed that at least ten employees will be transitioned out of the organisation with severance packages as their roles have been consequently made redundant. 

Explaining the thought behind the new name, Ogungbe said the decision to name the new organisation Prembly Group was a result of a mutual agreement reached by Peleza and Prembly to “leverage the brand equity and established market presence of Prembly, especially given its global recognition in compliance and digital security solutions.” 

Plans are reportedly in place to integrate the Know Your Customer or Business (KYC/B) technology platforms of both companies.