Fundraising rounds: Are Nigerian startups really that valuable?
Congratulations to Kuda bank on their recent fundraising.
I was having a conversation with a respected tech bro few days ago and he mentioned how Kuda bank must surely be the best neo-bank in Nigeria and probably Africa. While not disputing the work Babs and Musty have put in the work of reaching out to investors and convincing them to make this happen, i simply responded with the phrase:
“Olorun l’ogbo go f’ole”
Translation in English: God crowns the effort of the lazy man
I mean having raised about $35million in the past 12 months, they are really doing something good but then…
They added 1.5million users in 1 quarter. But my questions are “How many active users? and “what is their retention rate?”
For my non-VC/finance readers, valuation is a good thing but it is a promise that you will reach a certain target within a stipulated or an agreed time. For example, you raise $1,000,000 at $10,000,000 valuation: Means by the next fundraising round, it is most likely you begin to generate $10,000,000 in revenue else you do a down-round (I’ll explain all these in the future).
Do we need to raise funds? Africa raised just about 0.6% of global fundraised by startups in 2020…so YES.
Capital makes people experiment, makes markets mature and helps the entire ecosystem.
The question now is: Are Nigerian startups that valuable? Only time will tell.
Side note: A close friend of mine and highly experienced recently co-founded a Creditwolf — a digital bank and I’m a Non Executive Director. You can save at an interest rate of up of 30% as well as access nano loans via the app. Available on android and IOS.
Side note: I recently launched an angel fund few weeks ago for super-early stage startups. Ticket size is between $7,500 — $10,000
Investment theses
- We are industry-agnostic and invest in super-early stage tech or tech-enabled businesses that can scale.
- Founders must have found Product Market Fit
- Founders must demonstrate ability to make/have made their first $1,000 without external funding.
- They must show pathway to profitability.
- At least 1 founder must work on the idea full-time.
Is this you? Fill this form
Enjoy your week
