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GetFundedAfrica (GFA’s) Survey of Venture Capital Investors

According to a survey conducted by GetFundedAfrica’s Market Intelligence unit in 2020, nine in ten of some of the largest venture capital firms focused on the African market, cite investor readiness as the biggest barrier to investment in African startups. These venture capital firms collectively have over $5 billion in assets under management.  

Yassine Oussaifi, a Partner with AfricInvest, one of the venture capital firms who participated in the survey said “Being Investment-ready means you have a business idea that is validated by paying consumers and  potential Investors believe your startup is worth investing in and that you are ready for the next step of growth”. 

Like other continents, capital is necessary to grow African businesses exponentially. However, not all capital is appropriate, and having the right investors can be the difference between mediocrity and extraordinary success. Investor readiness on the part of the startup makes the job of investing much easier and would help channel more funds into African startups. 

According to a recent report by New York-based EMPEA, which describes itself as the global industry association for private capital in emerging markets, venture capital investment in Africa has grown but lags other continents. 

With more African startups becoming investor ready, Africa saw venture capital investment surge more than 10 times from $70 million raised in 2015 to $764 million raised in 2019 (nearly half of all VC dollars ($358 million) were deployed in Nigeria).  

Many attribute this surge to returnee Africans who sometimes have a better grasp of investor readiness. In a recent interview on “Debo’s Den”, a podcast run by GetFundedAfrica, Lateral Capital’s Managing Partner, Rob Eloff says ‘Africans returning home are sometimes able to leverage their networks abroad for investment. As more African based startups become investor ready, I expect more deals will take place”. 

An innovative approach to tackling the issue of investor readiness was recently introduced by GetFundedAfrica with the launch of REMSANA, a digital on-demand video platform developed to help present and future founders develop skills for investor readiness and fundraising.  

GetFundedAfrica’s approach is a revolving model where investor-readiness courses are available on demand in video and quiz format for a small amount and the proceeds from the sale of the courses are used to develop more content and invest in African startups.  

Debo Omololu & Tunji Oke, both from Nigeria are Co-Founders of GetFundedAfrica. According to them, “by 2019 after years of discussing, we had come to the conclusion that small and medium sized businesses are the engine room of economic growth, and African companies need venture capital in order to grow, create jobs and solve Africa’s greatest challenges. The GetFundedAfrica dream was to channel venture capital funds to deserving startups and the goal of REMSANA is to increase the pipeline of investor ready African companies. 

The REMSANA strategy is to start with basic courses for beginner levels and then expand to intermediate and advanced level courses. 

REMSANA learning platform and the courses can be accessed using this link https://remsana.getfundedafrica.com/courses/   

You can also sign up for newsletters from REMSANA to get updates on courses that can make you a better business founder. Starting a business is easy. building a business is hard. click here to sign-up.  

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