The African Trends Report - 17th July

The Africa Business Angels Network (ABAN), a pan-African association of angel investors, together with Rwanda Finance Ltd (RFL), a company that is dedicated to establishing Rwanda as a premier financial destination in Africa, have officially entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate and advance their initiatives across the continent.

Established in 2015, ABAN serves as a network of angel investors focused on Africa and encompasses over 35 African countries and the diaspora. ABAN is dedicated to educating the market on angel investment and the development of an early-stage investment ecosystem across the continent. RFL on the other hand is headquartered in Rwanda, and has been actively working to position the country as a leading financial hub in Africa, attracting investments and driving economic growth in the country. The partnership between the two seeks to leverage ABAN’s extensive network of angel investors and RFL’s expertise in promoting Rwanda’s investment ecosystem through the Kigali International Finance Centre (KIFC).

Benefits of the partnership:

● Enhanced investor awareness

● Fostered entrepreneurship

● Development of a favorable investment ecosystem in Africa

The MoU outlines the responsibilities of both parties as follows:

RFL

● Recommend administrators for ABAN and its member networks when establishing entities in Rwanda

ABAN :

● Deliver training sessions on early stage investment to KIFC ecosystem members

● Encourage its network members to channel their investments through KIFC

This collaboration between ABAN and RFL signifies a significant milestone for African entrepreneurship. The combination of their resources and networks will boost the establishment of a platform that will support early-stage investments and expedite the growth of African startups.

2. Private Equity News

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya has received a long term 7-year funding facility amounting to Sh13.8 billion from a consortium of financial institutions led by DEG for on-lending mainly to Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya. The Tier II Facility loan has already been fully disbursed and DEG acted as Lender, Mandated Lead Arranger and Facility Agent while the Consortium included The Africa Agriculture & Trade Investment Fund (AATIF), Micro Small Medium Enterprises Bonds (MSMEB) and European Development Finance Institutions namely Finnfund, Norfund and the co-financing facility European Financing Partners (EFP). The long-term tenure of the facility has boosted the bank’s ability to offer solutions that are better structured to fulfill the long-term financing needs of MSMEs as the loan comes at a time when the banks says is in great need to better support its business customers

Propel, an African tech startup founded in 2020 by Nigerian entrepreneurs and headquartered in Berlin, has successfully raised €2.5 million in seed funding to expand its platform and accelerate the growth of tech communities. The round was led by the esteemed Dutch venture capital firm No Such Ventures, with additional contributions from APX (a joint venture of Axel Springer and Porsche), Golden Egg Check, and the Future of Learning Fund. The startup offers an all-in-one platform that allows developer groups, talent incubators, training schools, and other communities to leverage its resources for the growth of its members. Through Propel’s platform, these communities can facilitate connections to suitable job opportunities, provide access to financial services like loans, and offer various benefits to support their members’ professional advancement. In addition, Propel enables these communities to generate revenues through collaborative partnerships, which can be reinvested into initiatives and programs aimed at attracting more individuals to pursue careers in the tech industry.

Ten Southern African startups have received US $5000 each to get their businesses investment ready as an award for their solutions to bridge the gap in financial access for underserved communities as part of a challenge supported by the World Bank. The Fintech Challenge was part of the ecosystem development initiatives under the Southern Africa Innovation Bridge Portal supported by the World Bank to crowd-source new and impactful ways to utilize the latest innovations in fintech. This initiative is aimed at providing low-cost and appropriate savings and de-risking products for the low- and middle-income market and lending solutions for SMEs Of the ten winning startups, South Africa was home to six, namely Abela, Bento Technologies, Fintr, Moya Money, Sum1 Investments, and Thumeza. Two are from Lesotho – Chaperone and Prime Capital – while there was one each from Botswana (Ipachi Capital) and Namibia (FundRoof).

Prepared by: Mercy Cherono

Date: 17th July, 2023

Sources:

The Kenyan Wall Street

Kigali International Financial Centre

Disrupt Africa