Investor Updates: September 12 2022 - Janngo Capital reaches first close of $63 million fund.

Janngo Capital reaches first close of $63 million fund

Highlights

• The Fatoumata Bâ-founded Janngo Capital has announced the first close of its Startup Fund (JCSF) with $36 million in capital commitments. 
• Launched in Davos in 2020, Janngo Capital’s latest fund will invest half of its proceeds in companies founded, co-founded, or benefiting women. 
• Backed by global financial institutions as well as leading private corporations, the fund management company plans to invest a total of $63 million in startups leveraging technology to leapfrog development and achieve SDGs in Africa.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Women in Africa are the most entrepreneurial globally with a total entrepreneurship activity rate of 26%. Yet, they face a $42 billion funding gap and have minimal access to growth capital. As one of the very few female-founded, female-owned, and female-led fund management companies in Africa, Janngo Capital has moved to address this gap, with a plan to invest 50% of its proceeds in companies founded, co-founded, or benefiting women.

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Nigeria’s Kippa bags $8.4m in a seed funding round

Highlights

• Kippa, the Nigerian startup improving the lifecycle of small businesses across the country with its financial management and payments platform, has raised $8.4 million in an oversubscribed seed round.
• The startup provides digital business and financial management solutions, such as digital bookkeeping and debt recovery, to Nigeria’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
• Founded in June 2021, Kippa raised pre-seed funding of $3.2 million in November 2021. It has now garnered backing from international investors to develop products that will help SMEs grow their businesses.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Even as tens of millions of Africans have come online in the past decade, most merchants in Nigeria still run their businesses offline—from managing money to keeping track of inventory, business records, staff, and suppliers. These manual processes can be time-consuming and error-prone. Kippa provides a suite of services that enable small-sized business owners to incorporate digital tools in day-to-day operations. Although it’s just one of the many platforms offering such services in sub-Saharan Africa. Similar providers include Pastel, Bamba, OZÉ, and Bumpa.

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Touch and Pay plans continental expansion after $3m funding

Highlights

• Nigerian fintech startup Touch and Pay is planning an expansion into a number of other African markets after securing a seed funding round of $3 million.
• Founded in 2019, Touch and Pay has developed a suite of near-field communication (NFC)-based payment solutions for micro-payments, such as payment of transportation fares or a cup of coffee, in an attempt to move towards a truly ‘cashless’ society.
• Participants in the W22 batch of the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator, Touch and Pay operates in four states in Nigeria and plans to roll out to Ghana and Senegal.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway
Micro-payments account for the bulk of financial transactions in Africa today. Touch and Pay’s solution presents an interesting blend of software and hardware to take digital financial services to the very last mile on the continent. And, according to company figures, the startup currently helps 350,000 people pay for bus fares daily in Nigeria, with over 2.3 million users. It takes a percentage of the transactions it processes and currently makes around $270,000 monthly.