Fara Ashiru Jituboh, Jessica Anuna, and Olugbenga Agboola are some of the founders of companies that have raised the most money in Africa.

According to Briter's analysis, only 3% of the $1.7 billion of funding that has been raised in Africa went to female founded fintech startups, while 76% of that number went to male-led startups. The gap in funds raised between the male and female CEOs could be attributed to the fact that there aren't many women in the finance and technology business space.

Over the last few years, female startups in Africa have improved their fundraising potential growing at an exponential rate annually. The largest fund raised by a female (CEO of Okra) in the fintech industry was $3.5 million, however, funds received by their male counterpart leaves a wide funding gap between both gender with Flutterwave leading the race with $150 million.

In order to secure investment, companies have to go through different fundraising rounds to enable investors evaluate the worth of these companies in order to determine the perfect amount to be invested. These rounds are referred to as Series A, B, and C. Series A financing refers to an investment in a privately held start-up company after it has shown progress in building its business model and demonstrates the potential to grow and generate revenue. It often refers to the first round of venture money a firm raises after seed and angel investors (Investopedia).

Series B financing is the second round of funding for a business through investment, including private equity investors and venture capitalists. Successive rounds of financing a business are consecutively termed Series A, Series B, and Series C financing. The Series B round generally takes place when the company has accomplished certain milestones in developing its business and is past the initial startup stage. In Series C round, investors inject capital into successful businesses, in an effort to receive more than double that amount back. Series C funding is focused on scaling the company, growing as quickly and as successfully as possible.

Okra, Klasha, and Ejara lead the Pack of Funds Raised by A Female-Led Company

Okra is a Nigerian-based fintech company founded in 2019 by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside with the premise of creating a secure portal and process to exchange real-time financial information between customers, applications, and banks. Okra has the most investments by a female-led company with $3.5 million raised by U.S.-based Susa Ventures which led the latest tranche of investment. Other investors include TLcom Capital (the sole investor from its $1 million pre-seed round in 2020), newly joined Accenture Ventures, and some angel investors (TechCrunch).

Klasha is an E-commerce company based in Lagos, Nigeria, and San Francisco, USA established with the intent of building cross-border commerce solutions for African consumers and international businesses wanting to sell in Africa. The company’s mission is to make consumer goods and services online more accessible to customers across Africa. The company was founded by Jessica Anuna when she recognized how quickly China was moving as an economy and understood the opportunities this growth would bring. The company has raised $2.4million funded by 21 investors. Greycroft and Global Ventures are the most recent investors (Crunchbase).

Ejara is an app for Africa and its diasporas to access various investment offers fractional shares, commodities, cryptocurrency, and more. The company has the third most investments by a female. According to the founder Nelly Chatue-Diop, “most people don’t have the safety net called retirement fund and some customers use Ejara for that. There are users, moms in particular, that use the platform to invest in their kids’ college education.” Ejara is funded by 9 investors. Jason Yanowitz and Mercy Corps Ventures are the most recent investors (Crunchbase).

Tomilola Majekodunmi’s Bankly also raised $2 million, while Lami founded by Jihan Abass raised $1.8 million.

Flutterwave, Mtn-Halan, and Interswitch are the Most Funded Male-Led Companies

Flutterwave is one of Nigeria’s biggest fintech companies, which provides technology, infrastructure, and services to enable global merchants, payment service providers, banks, and businesses to build secure and seamless payment solutions for their customers by smoothening the exchange of funds. Flutterwave was founded in 2016 by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji. So far this year, Flutterwave has raised $250 million and is being funded by 49 investors. Avenir Growth Capital and B Capital Group are the most recent investors.

MTN- Halan and Interswitch placed second and third as the most funded male-led companies in Africa with $150 million, and $110 million respectively. These two fintech companies, through their companies, are digitising traditional banking and cash-based markets through tech and data-driven solutions.

MFS Africa and Instadeep recorded the fourth and fifth most funded companies this year with $100 million.

Topic: startups

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