Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A) has announced that 16 African tech companies have been selected for their Seed and Series A Showcase. VC4A is an ecosystem builder that leverages its infrastructure, network and expertise for the programs that contribute to Africa’s startup movement.
The finalists have been selected from a pool of about 1000 applications by a 72-member strong investment committee representing the continent’s leading VC funds such as Plug and Play, Seedstars Ventures, Goodwell Investments, etc.
The 2021 portfolio companies have been vetted by VC investors through a rigorous referral and selection process. And, the committee believes that they represent the best seed and series A investment opportunities on the continent.
All the companies selected provide technology-intensive or innovation-based products or services in the healthcare, finance, transport, commerce and education sectors. All of which are currently available in more than one African market.
With rounds ranging between $400K and $20M and since 2017, participating showcase portfolio companies have jointly raised over $160M in venture capital in the past. Nigerian Agritech startup, Foodlocker and Utiva are companies that have participated in previous showcases.
SeriesA track portfolio
In the 2021 Series-A round, YouVerify is the only selected Nigerian startup. Other companies in this category include Alpha Direct Insurtech (Botswana), Arifu (Kenya), Chari Co (Morocco), Cinetpay (Côte d’Ivoire), CloudFret (Morocco), Fatura (Egypt) and Rology (Egypt).
YouVerify was founded in 2017 by Gbenga Odegbami. The startup helps businesses automate due diligence and compliance by using data-driven decisions especially for the financial services, and telecommunication industries.
Youverify provides API for address and identity verification in Africa. The company has the ambition to help organisations use data and its insight to make automated and efficient business decisions. It also aims to help speed up previously manual back-office processes.
Last year, the company raised $1.5m in a seed round and is looking to solve identity problems in the continent.
Seed track portfolio
The Seed track portfolio has 8 startups participating. Oneport Inc. is the only Nigerian startup on the list.
Others in the portfolio are Appload (Mozambique), CashBackApp (Kenya), FlexPay (Kenya), Moja Ride ( Côte d’Ivoire), SAYNA (Madagascar), ShipBlu (Egypt) and Waya Limited (Ghana).
Founded in 2019 by Hio Sola-Usidame, OnePort Inc is a digital freight forwarding platform that offers instant freight quotations. Oneport seeks to provide simplified, all-inclusive, and transparent freight forwarding services driven by technology.
Participation…
Before showcasing their startups to investors during the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit in November 2021, the selected startups will participate in a virtual investor readiness programme to prepare them for fundraising.
The entrepreneurs will also be linked to top VCs and angel investors for one-on-one mentorship, complemented by office hours with domain experts and high profile guest speaker sessions.
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