Press Release
Mauritius
08.08.2023
The Catalytic Africa matching fund has disbursed a total of 174,000 Euros to three startups: Koree, Mosmos, and ITOT Africa in June and July 2023, representing a 290% upsurge from the same time last year.
This funding will enable the startups Mosmos (Kenya), Koree (Cameroon), and ITOT Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo) to expand their horizons, grow their workforce and scale their operations in their domiciled regions, improving productivity.
Cameroon-based fintech startup Koree (a card wallet application that addresses Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa spare change scarcity) received a 20,000 Euros investment from Cameroon Angel Network, unlocking a 3X matching investment of 60,000 Euros from Catalytic Africa, adding to a list of 15 African early-stage startups that have gotten a boost from the matching fund to scale their businesses. Koree is also the first women-led startup in Francophone Africa to receive funding of this kind. Currently raising its pre-seed round, the startup highlights that this funding gives confidence to the investor community that it is determined to grow.
“Koree aims to transform the retail payment and marketing landscape in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa by offering inclusive solutions for both customers and merchants. The startup addresses the region’s rampant spare change scarcity, which makes cash payments for low-cost items with high-value bills nearly impossible. Simultaneously, we look forward to empowering millions of African consumers through an inventive reward system,” Koree Founder Magalie Gauze-Sanga said.
“Investing in female-led startups has become an imperative in today’s dynamic startup ecosystem landscape. The Cameroon Angel Network (CAN) recognizes this significance and stands as a beacon of support for such enterprises. Co-investing with CAN through Catalytic Africa in Koree, not only empowers women entrepreneurs but also signifies strong commitment towards promoting diversity, innovation, and sustainable economic growth,” said Fadilah Tchoumba, Secretary General, ABAN.
On the other hand, Mosmos (a Kenyan-based save-to-buy platform that enables customers to save for items they want to purchase interest-free), also unlocked 60,000 Euros of matching funding from Catalytic Africa through an investment from the Nairobi Business Angel Network (NaiBAN). Mosmos is also supported by Antler East Africa (an Afrilabs-affiliated member).
Fuelled by continued innovation and steady growth, Mosmos looks forward to further expanding its reach and building the home of goal-based savings in Africa.
“At the moment, Mosmos is working alongside amazing businesses like Hotpoint and FoneXpress to help their customers adopt the Save-to-Buy model, and with this funding, we look forward to unlocking this new customer segment for many other great Kenyan businesses,” said Mosmos CEO, Masha Chengo.
“Co-investing with ABAN’s accredited angel network members such as NaiBAN through Catalytic Africa spreads the risks associated with investing in African Startups and it is a great way to support the growth and development of the African startup ecosystem that can attract more capital, talent, and innovation to the continent,” expressed Tchoumba.
The third startup that unlocked matching funds from Catalytic Africa this quarter is DRC-based startup, ITOT Africa – a leading pan-African Ed-tech start-up based in Lubumbashi that offers training, digital educational tools, and other IT consulting services to corporates, SMEs, NGOs, and individual entrepreneurs. ITOT Africa received 54,000 Euros in matching funds, supporting an investment made into the startup by DRC Impact Angels. This is the second startup in DRC to receive co-investment from Catalytic Africa.
With the unlocked matching funds from Catalytic Africa, ITOT Africa continues to advance its on-demand training services in other cities in DRC and democratize knowledge access in that country.
“This investment will create an avenue for us to venture into a new market such as Kolwezi, which is the largest mining city in DRC. With this expansion, we will be able to offer training, digital, and coding business services to the local ecosystem, including mining companies and international clients with operations in the city. Moreover, we will now be able to strengthen our core product offering through Okademy,” said Samy Mwamba, Co-founder of ITOT Africa.
“Co-investing with DRC Impact Angels to support ITOT Africa is an exciting move for us and we are excited to amplify the need for diversified education systems across the continent – which has prompted an opportunity for growth for EdTech startups like ITOT Africa. Supporting the national growth of startups such as ITOT Africa, which has demonstrated the ability to create value for diverse customer bases is a remarkable achievement,” added Tchoumba.
In an effort to connect entrepreneurs to much-needed capital, Catalytic Africa’s matching fund continues to play a pivotal role in encouraging private investments in startups by reducing the risk for investors & providing additional resources for startups in Africa to grow and scale their businesses. We are keen on ensuring start-ups continue to play an essential role in developing more innovative solutions that meet the needs of developing and emerging countries and create valuable impacts on Africa’s development. We look forward to connecting more entrepreneurs and startups to the much-needed capital to boost their operations in the investment ecosystem in Africa.
ENDS.
About Catalytic Africa
Catalytic Africa is a co-investment solution by ABAN in conjunction with AfriLabs that raises funds (grant, equity, or debt) from various institutional partners to add to a pool. This pool serves as a co-investment fund to encourage investment in viable African startups from innovation hubs affiliated with AfriLabs. To date, local angel investors have invested 1,082,124 Euros in startups affiliated with hubs and Catalytic Africa has deployed 876,453 Euros as qualified matching grants, leading to a cumulative amount of over 1.9 Million Euros invested in African startups across 13 countries.
About ABAN
The African Business Angel Network (ABAN) is the largest pan-African organization of Angel investors in Africa. Established in 2015, ABAN represents the growing number of business angel groups in the African early-stage ecosystems’ future, providing vital human and financial capital to African startup companies creating jobs across the continent. Today ABAN is a 67-member network in 35 African countries and the Diaspora representing over 1400 angel investors.
ABAN and Afrilabs spearhead the Catalytic Africa matching fund. To unlock your funding in 3 weeks, update your profile or register at https://catalytic-africa.com/ to kickstart your application process.
For further inquiries, please contact us at secretariat@abanangels.org
