Venture capital investments into startups in Africa hit a record high in 2021 as companies raised over $4.3 billion in venture capital (VC) investments – 2.5x the amount raised in 2020. Startups in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa (collectively referred to as the “the big four”) raised over $3.4 billion, representing 81% of the total funding raised on the continent.
Oui Capital, an Africa focused, sector agnostic VC firm known for their early investments in agency banking giant TeamApt, and freight forwarder, MVX, made a total of eight new investments across Africa – the most they’ve ever done in a single year. In this article, we take a closer look at Oui Capital’s 2021 investments.
AKIBA DIGITAL
South Africa-based Akiba Digital, is a financial technology company building alternative credit scoring infrastructure to enable SMEs who cannot be scored by credit bureaus access credit, which is a $200 million-plus problem on the African continent. The company was founded by Tebogo Mokwena, Tshepiso Gower, and Kamogelo Kekana. Oui Capital co-led Akiba Digital’s pre-seed round together with Expert Dojo.
NDOVU
The company was founded by Radhika Bachu, Ro Nyangeari, and Gianpaolo De Biase to make investment opportunities more accessible to millennials in Africa. Ndovu is a fintech, operating a micro-investment platform that enables individuals in Africa to not only invest in foreign and domestic financial markets, but offers financial education, advice, and active management of their investment portfolios. Their goal is to build sustainable wealth amidst inflationary pressures and local currency fluctuations across the African continent. Ndovu launched in Nairobi, Kenya a few hours ago.
QUABBLY
Quabbly is a no-code enterprise software company with operations in Lagos, Nigeria, Quabbly enables businesses to create and manage databases through process automation. The company was founded by David Ogbonna-Eze, Osita Daniel and Jamiu Ozigi to deliver easy-to-use, cost-effective, and scalable software solutions for businesses. A desire to sell an “all-in-one” software solution to the businesses they sought to serve, led the founders to build a platform that enables businesses to tailor such software to their needs. Oui Capital led Quabbly’s pre-seed round, with participation from Ben Tossell, founder of Makerpad (sold to Zapier).
AIFLUENCE
AiFluence is an AI powered influencer marketing platform that enables organizations to coordinate, launch, and manage influencer marketing campaigns in Africa. This Kenyan based company was founded by Nelson Aseka and Lamusia Anzaya to solve one of the biggest challenges in marketing: the difficulty in measuring the return on investment on campaigns.
DUPLO
Duplo is a financial technology company, building a B2B payments operations platform aiming to reduce the time, cost and complexity of managing payments. With Duplo, brands and businesses alike can not only automate and reconcile both cash inflows and outflows, but use an array of financial services products tailored to their needs. The Lagos based company was founded by Yele Oyekola, Tunde Akinnuwa, and Emeka Okwuagwu.
HERCONOMY
Herconomy is a financial technology company that leverages the strength of its community to empower women and improve financial inclusion. The company has developed its first mobile application with a saving and investing feature, capacity to connect with its community, and spends through its partnerships with globally recognized brands. . Herconomy is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, and has 60 affinity partners, and over 15,000 users. Oui Capital was the sole institutional investor in the company’s pre-seed round.
CLANE
Clane, a financial technology company enables merchants to accept payments with their mobile phones, and provides consumers with a unified mobile payments app linked to their bank accounts. Led by Ibraheem Babalola, Clane is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
MAAD
Maad is a B2B e-commerce company building a platform to digitally manage field operations, and to connect fast moving consumer goods (“FMCG”) manufacturers with informal retailers in Francophone Africa, with the goal of improving visibility across the supply chain, driving higher sales volumes, and improving service quality.
Oui Capital is on a mission to provide early-stage capital and mentorship to startups in Africa. Their first fund closed $4.7m in December 2019, led by some influential limited partners, including Foundry Group’s founders- Seth Levine and Brad Feld, Gbenga Oyebode’s TVCP, and several executives from some of Africa’s most prominent commercial banks.
