CRESTHUB
CRESTHUB MAGAZINE
  • NEWS
    Flutterwave debunks Alleged Reports of Hacked Accounts

    Flutterwave debunks Alleged Reports of Hacked Accounts

    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    Jumba raises $4.5 Million Pre-seed to Expand the supply of Construction materials in Kenya.

    Jumba raises $4.5 Million Pre-seed to Expand the supply of Construction materials in Kenya.

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    PICTDA announces Resumption Date for Code Plateau Cohort

    PICTDA announces Resumption Date for Code Plateau Cohort

    Releaf secures $3.3 million Pre-series A funding to improve its Food Processing Technology

    Releaf secures $3.3 million Pre-series A funding to improve its Food Processing Technology

  • FEATURED
    Nigeria’s Cash Swap Policy: Goals versus Results

    Nigeria’s Cash Swap Policy: Goals versus Results

    Six Things that could Shape the Northern Nigerian Tech Ecosystem in 2023

    Six Things that could Shape the Northern Nigerian Tech Ecosystem in 2023

    5 Exciting Things That Happened in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem

    5 Exciting Things That Happened in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem

    SmallSmall to Expand to Jos following a $3 Million Seed Raise

    SmallSmall to Expand to Jos following a $3 Million Seed Raise

    The Increase in Data Prices is a Big Challenge for Remote Workers in Nigeria

    How Tobiloba Olusola is making Electronic Health Records Accessible to Patients

    How Tobiloba Olusola is making Electronic Health Records Accessible to Patients

  • BLOCKCHAIN
    Binance now accepts Naira Deposits and Withdrawals

    Binance now accepts Naira Deposits and Withdrawals

    Cardano Accelerator Adaverse Invests in Afriguild’s Mission to Onboard Africans Into Web3

    Cardano Accelerator Adaverse Invests in Afriguild’s Mission to Onboard Africans Into Web3

    Is Africa Ready to Operate a Digital Monetary Policy?

    Is Africa Ready to Operate a Digital Monetary Policy?

    What Binance and TikTok Star, Khaby Lame’s Partnership mean for Crypto and Web3 Adoption

    What Binance and TikTok Star, Khaby Lame’s Partnership mean for Crypto and Web3 Adoption

    PLA2SMART Set to Lead a New Frontier in Nigeria’s Tourism Economy

    Bundle Launches Web App to Give Users More Accessibility to Crypto

    Bundle Launches Web App to Give Users More Accessibility to Crypto

  • FINANCE
    CBN prohibits Foreign Banks from Offering Banking Services

    CBN prohibits Foreign Banks from Offering Banking Services

    Flutterwave adds Google Pay to its Payment Options for African Businesses

    Flutterwave adds Google Pay to its Payment Options for African Businesses

    After Receiving Switching and Processing Licence from CBN, Flutterwave includes eNaira to its Payment Options

    After Receiving Switching and Processing Licence from CBN, Flutterwave includes eNaira to its Payment Options

    Flutterwave gets Switching and Processing licence from CBN

    Flutterwave gets Switching and Processing licence from CBN

    Google Expands its Digital Wallet to South Africa

    Google Expands its Digital Wallet to South Africa

    FCCPC Orders Drawdown of Online Credit Companies

    FCCPC Orders Drawdown of Online Credit Companies

  • START UPS
    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    PressOne Africa raises $600,000 Pre-seed Funding to Support Entrepreneurs

    PressOne Africa raises $600,000 Pre-seed Funding to Support Entrepreneurs

    ThriveAgric selected West African Winners of the AYuTe Africa Challenge, receiving $1 million.

    ThriveAgric selected West African Winners of the AYuTe Africa Challenge, receiving $1 million.

    Yebo Fresh raises $4.5 million to Supply Fresh Food in South Africa

    Yebo Fresh raises $4.5 million to Supply Fresh Food in South Africa

    Sky.Garden survives Shutdown, gets New Owners

    Sky.Garden survives Shutdown, gets New Owners

  • PODCAST
CRESTHUB
  • NEWS
    Flutterwave debunks Alleged Reports of Hacked Accounts

    Flutterwave debunks Alleged Reports of Hacked Accounts

    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    Jumba raises $4.5 Million Pre-seed to Expand the supply of Construction materials in Kenya.

    Jumba raises $4.5 Million Pre-seed to Expand the supply of Construction materials in Kenya.

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    PICTDA announces Resumption Date for Code Plateau Cohort

    PICTDA announces Resumption Date for Code Plateau Cohort

    Releaf secures $3.3 million Pre-series A funding to improve its Food Processing Technology

    Releaf secures $3.3 million Pre-series A funding to improve its Food Processing Technology

  • FEATURED
    Nigeria’s Cash Swap Policy: Goals versus Results

    Nigeria’s Cash Swap Policy: Goals versus Results

    Six Things that could Shape the Northern Nigerian Tech Ecosystem in 2023

    Six Things that could Shape the Northern Nigerian Tech Ecosystem in 2023

    5 Exciting Things That Happened in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem

    5 Exciting Things That Happened in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem

    SmallSmall to Expand to Jos following a $3 Million Seed Raise

    SmallSmall to Expand to Jos following a $3 Million Seed Raise

    The Increase in Data Prices is a Big Challenge for Remote Workers in Nigeria

    How Tobiloba Olusola is making Electronic Health Records Accessible to Patients

    How Tobiloba Olusola is making Electronic Health Records Accessible to Patients

  • BLOCKCHAIN
    Binance now accepts Naira Deposits and Withdrawals

    Binance now accepts Naira Deposits and Withdrawals

    Cardano Accelerator Adaverse Invests in Afriguild’s Mission to Onboard Africans Into Web3

    Cardano Accelerator Adaverse Invests in Afriguild’s Mission to Onboard Africans Into Web3

    Is Africa Ready to Operate a Digital Monetary Policy?

    Is Africa Ready to Operate a Digital Monetary Policy?

    What Binance and TikTok Star, Khaby Lame’s Partnership mean for Crypto and Web3 Adoption

    What Binance and TikTok Star, Khaby Lame’s Partnership mean for Crypto and Web3 Adoption

    PLA2SMART Set to Lead a New Frontier in Nigeria’s Tourism Economy

    Bundle Launches Web App to Give Users More Accessibility to Crypto

    Bundle Launches Web App to Give Users More Accessibility to Crypto

  • FINANCE
    CBN prohibits Foreign Banks from Offering Banking Services

    CBN prohibits Foreign Banks from Offering Banking Services

    Flutterwave adds Google Pay to its Payment Options for African Businesses

    Flutterwave adds Google Pay to its Payment Options for African Businesses

    After Receiving Switching and Processing Licence from CBN, Flutterwave includes eNaira to its Payment Options

    After Receiving Switching and Processing Licence from CBN, Flutterwave includes eNaira to its Payment Options

    Flutterwave gets Switching and Processing licence from CBN

    Flutterwave gets Switching and Processing licence from CBN

    Google Expands its Digital Wallet to South Africa

    Google Expands its Digital Wallet to South Africa

    FCCPC Orders Drawdown of Online Credit Companies

    FCCPC Orders Drawdown of Online Credit Companies

  • START UPS
    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    Naked secures $17 Million Series B to Expand its Digital Insurance Company in Africa

    PressOne Africa raises $600,000 Pre-seed Funding to Support Entrepreneurs

    PressOne Africa raises $600,000 Pre-seed Funding to Support Entrepreneurs

    ThriveAgric selected West African Winners of the AYuTe Africa Challenge, receiving $1 million.

    ThriveAgric selected West African Winners of the AYuTe Africa Challenge, receiving $1 million.

    Yebo Fresh raises $4.5 million to Supply Fresh Food in South Africa

    Yebo Fresh raises $4.5 million to Supply Fresh Food in South Africa

    Sky.Garden survives Shutdown, gets New Owners

    Sky.Garden survives Shutdown, gets New Owners

  • PODCAST
No Result
View All Result
CRESTHUB
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Against all odds, African female-led tech startups are raising funds

by Mary John
June 24, 2022
in Featured
Reading Time: 9 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

280 out of 399 female entrepreneurs, while responding to the question of challenges they have come across in the African market, identified poor access to funds as the most common challenge.

Although investments in African tech have shot up over the years, female participation in the management of these companies and funding of women-led enterprises have been low.

While citing data from the World Bank’s 2018 Global Financial Inclusion database (Findex) on Sub-Saharan Africa, Briter Bridges disclosed that the percentage of women receiving a loan from any source was five percentage lower than that of men; where women take up 43% and men 48%.

A gender gap which they believe is driven
by a combination of firm characteristics, founder attributes, and investor bias.

In a study titled, “Challenges and opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Africa: a survey of science and technology usage“, UNESCO while quoting Morsy et al, 2019, confirmed that, “women entrepreneurs in Africa, in general, and in North Africa, in particular, are more likely to self-select themselves out of the credit market due to low [self-]perceived creditworthiness compared to their men counterparts”

The struggle so far:

In the same study by UNESCO, it was recorded that, from January 2019 to April 2020, 13.4% of African tech start-ups and small or medium-sized enterprises receiving venture capital were (co-)founded by women, yet female (co-)founded companies were allocated 5.7% of venture capital in 2019.

By December, 2020, Briter Bridges recorded that out of the 869 (co-)founding members that raised funding within their company, 17.4% were female.

In summary, between January 2013 and May 2021, Briter Bridges uncovered that a total of 1,112 start-ups operating across Africa raised a combined amount of $1.7 billion in early-stage financing. Investments into all-female teams (9% of total startups) made up only 3% of the $1.7 billion, while 76% of investments went to all-male founding teams (75% of total startups).

In other words, this reflects that, for each $1 going to all-female founding teams, all-male teams received $25. This goes to prove just how much of a challenge funding has been for female entrepreneurs and female-led companies in Africa.

How this affects the companies and the tech ecosystem:

In an interview with All Africa, Evelyne Dioh SIMPA, Managing Director of Women Investment Club (WIC) Capital – the first investment fund to exclusively target women-led early stage businesses in West Africa – asserted that although 31% of entrepreneurs in her home country, Senegal, are women, the majority of these women-led enterprises are operating at small scale due to poor funding.

“Majority of women-led businesses are operating at a very small scale,” she said, “generating less than $200,000 USD a year in revenue. And because of that, they are not attractive to banks. We’ve found that about 44% of Senegalese women entrepreneurs who borrow money do so from relatives, and only 3.5% of them use financial institutions to access credit. That is holding them back.”

In the aforementioned report, UNESCO, citing Korchi, stated that, “the funding problem prevents women from recruiting qualified staff, thus forcing them to do everything alone or to hire relatives, which ultimately makes their business local in nature for the most part.”

Statistics have shown that in businesses co-founded by women, for every dollar of funding they receive, they deliver 2.5× more revenue than their male counterparts. And they reinvest up to 90% of their income in the education, health and nutrition of their family and community. In other words, what goes around, comes back around.

“If gender gaps can be closed in labor markets, education, health and other areas, then poverty and hunger eradication can be achieved,” Helen Clark, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had encouraged in 2016.

Women backing women:

The gap/bias that exists between men and women in the tech ecosystem is like a wound that has eaten too deep into the space to be filled up swiftly. Hence, it has been a slow yet steady run to ensure that women are duly represented in this space.

Initiatives, Venture Capitalists and private investors all across the globe have sprung up and led campaigns to promote female inclusion and ensure that female-led enterprises are adequately supported and funded. A lot of these investors have been recorded to be women who have unwavering faith in their peers and have resolved to take the much evaded risk of investing in them.

This includes firms and initiatives like the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), Women in Tech in Nigeria (WITIN), Women Investment Club (WIC) Capital, Aruwa Capital Management, Rising Tide Africa, etc, who have invested in so many companies all across Africa. They do not only raise funds for these enterprises, but they also train them and provide the right environment for female-led companies to flourish and expand.

Notable funds raised by African female founders

Healthtracka:
Founded by Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson in May 2021, is a Lagos-based digital health platform that offers at-home health tests.

From the time of its inception, up until this point, Healthtracka has been aided and funded by female-led VCs.

In December 2021, the company secured an undisclosed amount in funding from Akazi Capital and FirstCheck Africa; both investment firms founded and led by well-meaning African women.

One year after this – earlier this week – Healthtracka successfully secured $1.5 million in a fundraising round led by Hustle Fund, Ingressive Capital, Flying Doctors Nigeria and Alumni Angels Alliance. All of these venture capital firms are (co-)founded by women as well.

Koolboks:
Founded by Deborah Gael, is another female-led company that has enjoyed funding from female investors.

Earlier, in January this year, the France-based company which manufactures affordable solar-powered freezers for Nigerian consumers, raised $1.65 million in a seed round led by Aruwa Capital Management and non-profit venture fund, Acumen to strengthen the company’s team, build a distribution network across Nigeria and procure more technology with which to improve products.

About a day ago, another $500,000 was invested into the company by shell-funded impact investment company, All On. All of these VCs were led by other women.

Edukoya:
In December, 2021, the Lagos and London-based edutech startup, which was founded by British-Nigerian entrepreneur, Honey Ogundeyi, raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding led by European VC firm Target Global.

Other investors that participated in the funding round included: Kuda‘s co-founders – Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha; Paystack‘s CEO, Shola Akinlade; Stash and Auxmoney.

The way forward:

The road to positive development in every sector of Africa begins with diversity, equity and Inclusion. Because inclusiveness without adequate support (financially and psychologically) is no inclusiveness at all.

We need to hone the talents in women and diversify our workplaces. We need to completely erase the mentality that ‘women are meant to be seen and not heard’ and explore the idea that women can do much better when given an equal chance.

“The glass ceiling, though cracked in many places, is far from being shattered. Gender requirements in selection and recruitment and incentive mechanisms for retention can enhance women’s representation in the public and private sectors. Mentoring, coaching and sponsoring can empower women in the workplace by using successful female senior managers as role models and as sponsors,” according to the Human Development Report 2016.

Related

Previous Post

Kenyan foodtech Startup, Kune Shuts Down Months after Raising $1 Million

Next Post

PICTDA Grants Corp Member Scholarship into Univelcity

Next Post
PICTDA Grants Corp Member Scholarship into Univelcity

PICTDA Grants Corp Member Scholarship into Univelcity

Abeg Rebrands to Pocket, set to Pioneer Social Commerce in Nigeria

No Result
View All Result

CRESTHUB MAGAZINE

Popular Posts

  • The Impact of E-commerce in Strengthening the Supply and Distribution Chain of Nigerian Businesses
  • Flutterwave debunks Alleged Reports of Hacked Accounts
  • Nigeria’s Cash Swap Policy: Goals versus Results
  • WorkPay raises $2.7million Pre-series A Funding to Expand its Services across Africa
  • Jumba raises $4.5 Million Pre-seed to Expand the supply of Construction materials in Kenya.

Cresthub

Learn, Start and Grow your Business with Innovative Business Solutions at Cresthub.

Company

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Privacy Policy

Products

  • Cresthub Magazine
  • Cresthub Podcast
  • Cresthub Insight

Socials

Facebook Twitter Youtube
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 Cresthub Media

No Result
View All Result
  • NEWS
  • FEATURED
  • BLOCKCHAIN
  • FINANCE
  • START UPS
  • PODCAST

© 2022 Cresthub Media

Cresthub newsletter
THE WEEKLY ROUND UP

Join our newsletter to get first hand insight in tech and start up happenings in Nigeria and Africa at large.

Enter your email address
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.