By Adedapo Adesanya
To bridge the inadequate capital faced by budding tech entrepreneurs in Africa, top financial technology platform, Carbon, has launched a new $100,000 Pan-African fund.
Through the funding, Carbon’s Disrupt fund, the company said it will invest up to $10,000 per startup, for 5 percent equity and give access to Carbon’s API, allowing participating startup to leverage Carbon’s growing customer base and innovative technology platform, to get to market faster.
It was stated that startups from Nigeria and other countries including Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and Egypt will qualify for $10,000 each and will see more collaboration and further investment that should drive growth across the tech ecosystem on the continent.
Speaking on this, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Carbon, Mr Chijioke Dozie, said this will benefit all players, including Carbon.
“Common investor wisdom is to stay in your market and dominate. This assumes that you are expanding on your own but we believe that by collaborating and partnering deliberately, Carbon and other tech companies can scale faster and build more enduring platforms.
“There are many excellent companies across the continent looking for the kind of scale Nigeria offers and we are excited to partner with them to provide the support and financial investment they need,” he said.
On the part of another Carbon co-founder, Mrs Ngozi Dozie, “The investing environment for early-stage startups has improved in recent years. However, a key issue for most startups that has not been addressed is the cost of customer acquisition.”
“A lot of money is spent on acquiring customers, mainly via social media, when a more collaborative approach among tech companies could be more efficient. Our fund will enable this collaboration, allowing others to market to our customer base and vice versa – a win-win for everyone,” she continued.
Currently, Carbon is accepting applications from companies with operations in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt under the criteria that these startups must have a functioning product, post revenue and looking to operate in multiple countries.
The fund also has a wide investment mandate but target sectors include insurance, health, education which have not seen as much investment as the fintech space which got over 50 percent of the funding received on the continent in 2019.
Aduragbemi Omiyale