Investment Represents Significant ShEquity Milestone because the Firm’s Maiden Special Purpose Vehicle Fund is Now Fully Vested
Lagos, Nigeria – 1st December 2022 – ShEquity (the “Firm”), a gender-lens funding agency that seeks to deal with Africa’s gender funding hole by making good investments in African-owned and led companies, immediately introduced its funding in a Nigerian fintech startup, Owoafara Inc, led by Tale Alimi. Owoafara’s platform offers digital banking to help the unbanked inhabitants of the world in accessing monetary merchandise and providers that go well with their every day wants via funds, credit, financial savings, medical health insurance, and pensions on a single platform.
The addition of Owoafara illustrates ShEquity’s unrelenting dedication to offering good investments for African feminine entrepreneurs and innovators and additionally represents a big milestone because the Firm’s maiden Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is now totally vested.
The international fintech market measurement is predicted to extend with a compound annual progress fee (CAGR) of 19.8% throughout the forecast interval to achieve USD 332.5 billion by the 12 months 2028. With a inhabitants of 218 million and girls representing nearly all of casual employment estimated at 125million (57.7% of the inhabitants), Nigeria represents an infinite market potential for Owoafara. Based on a survey carried out by Ernst & Young in collaboration with the Fintech Association of Nigeria, 57% of 290 fintech Nigerian companies surveyed generate greater than $5 million in respective gross sales.
Through Owoafara’s digital platform and card providers, member companies are verified and supplied with quite a lot of monetary providers together with credit score not usually supplied by banks.
Commenting on the funding, ShEquity’s Founder and Managing Partner, Pauline Koelbl, mentioned, “The investment in Owoafara illustrates ShEquity’s singular focus on providing catalytic investments to African women entrepreneurs and innovators. Having been selected from the participants of the first ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA) cohort, Owoafara also testifies to SHEBA as a trusted pipeline for high-growth and high-impact deals. Through our existing eight portfolio companies, we impact over 14 million lives and contribute to all 17 United Nations SDGs. With this ninth investment, ShEquity has now fully vested its maiden special purpose investment vehicle, reaching a key milestone for the Firm. We have now begun the transition process to a venture capital fund structure, which will allow ShEquity to increase its socioeconomic contribution to the African Continent.”
Tale Alimi, Co-founder and CEO of Owoafara, commented, “We at Owoafara are thrilled to partner with ShEquity to accelerate our growth, broaden our impact, and support us to competitively scale in West Africa. Eighty percent of our current loan book are to unbanked women micro-entrepreneurs. We are proud that our products promote an inclusive fintech sector wherein hardworking informal women entrepreneurs can increase their earnings capacity and strengthen their economic agility to resist financial precarity, thus ensuring long-term livelihood and family security. ShEquity’s investment will support us in reaching one million underserved micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses by 2023.”
Owoafara is amongst sixteen companies that graduated from the primary cohort of the ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA) in September 2021. The USAID Trade Hub-backed initiative, SHEBA, addresses the present gender funding hole by de-risking African female-led companies and getting them to grow to be investment-ready. The USAID Trade Hub help to ShEquity additionally contains investable first loss assure to catalyze traders for the VC Fund. ShEquity established SHEBA in March 2021 in collaboration with its implementation companion, MBC Africa, and has efficiently accomplished two anglophone cohorts, with 30 contributors onboarded in every cohort. To date, a complete of 35 startups have accomplished this system, and ShEquity has lately launched the inaugural Francophone cohort of 30 contributors.
About ShEquity
ShEquity’s goal is to offer good investments for African feminine entrepreneurs and innovators, the important thing driver of inclusive socio-economic progress. ShEquity goals for a triple backside line return -financial, social, and environmental- with direct affect correlating with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Firm gives traders to its new fund entry to progressive, impact-oriented, and scalable women-led and owned companies de-risked via SHEBA and partial loss protection.
Find extra data right here: https://shequity.com
