NALA’s Post

🌍 Empowering Real Growth with Substantial Investments in Africa 🌍 I strongly believe that to drive true progress on our continent, we need to focus on raising substantial capital, not just the small, incremental amounts often promoted by NGOs and other "doing-good" organizations. While these efforts are well-intentioned, they often come with high monitoring and evaluation costs that overshadow their impact. To build real, sustainable companies that can make a significant difference, we need to attract and utilize meaningful investments. It's time to shift our approach and ensure that we're providing the financial backing necessary for genuine growth and development. Let's champion real change and create an environment where businesses can thrive with the support they truly need. 💡 #Investment #Growth #SustainableDevelopment #RealChange

This week in tech mafia news we have a special & influential group coming up: The TechCrunch Mafia! Quick stats: 📌 $590M raised 📌 120 companies founded Stay tuned for the full breakdown!

The last week of 2023 was busy at ZAS Ventures, we were preparing several deals and going to tell you about all of them in the upcoming weeks. The first one: Fintellect has raised pre-seed from ZAS Ventures. Fintellect helps businesses manage finances, avoid cash gaps, and calculate project profitability. We truly believe in what Danylo Golota and Yegor Walowski are building, their mission and their strategy, they already built a great product, and we're here with all our expertise and network to help them scale across the US. If you're a project-based business you need to check them out, we have been using them for months now, especially Artem Volkhonskyi :) Andrew Zinchuk, Dave Matli, Max Kusmierek, Andrew Call, CPCC, Mark Kreynovich, AIN.Capital, VECTOR, Sergey Kudryashov ✈️

How This Female Founder Raised $150 Million to Construct Untearable Tights Katherine Homuth, founder and CEO of SRTX, the parent company of Sheertex Tights, shares her strategy for cultivating investors and achieving economies of scale. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dXGZMtzw . . Like 💝 Comment below ⏬ Share ✅ For More Such Updates Follow Us @qnewshub @qnewscrunch . . #qnewshub #qnewscrunch #StartupFunding

Fintech is cool, but most people don't know the dark shits behind. Braid, a fintech startup, raised $10 million from big investors. 4 years later, it was shut down. Still cool? ⚠️ Braid made 2 deadly mistakes: • Relied too much on 3rd party software • Missed the opportunity to raise money 🧠 3 important lessons learned for founders: • Minimise reliance on 3rd party software • Raise money at the right time • Always prepare for the worst The latest newsletter about Braid's downfall is out. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/graMmaJv Thought? 🤝🏻

Connect with other Founders: https://lnkd.in/g2-KKmea Razorpay led by CEO Harshil Mathur, an Indian payment gateway provider, has raised $375 million in a Series F funding round led by Lone Pine Capital LLC, Alkeon Capital, and TCV. The round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, Y Combinator, and GIC. This funding round values Razorpay at $7.5 billion, more than double its valuation in April 2021. The company plans to use the funds to strengthen India's financial infrastructure for small businesses, scale its neo-banking platform, RazorpayX, explore new acquisitions in the B2B segment, and expand into Southeast Asian countries. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/gBht8iXm

On Dec. 19, it was announced that Marcelo Claure has returned to Open Opportunity Fund as vice chairman and general partner after being a founding member of the fund in 2020 as CEO of SoftBank Group International, per a press release shared with AFROTECH. Now, Claure will join Judge in the agreement to acquire an ownership stake in the $100 million Opportunity Fund 1 from SoftBank Group. “We always felt that both Paul Judge and myself had to reunite,” Claure said. “So the best way for us to reunite is by agreeing to purchase that fund from SoftBank and for us to continue, which for both of us, it’s just such an important project that began in 2020. It’s so nice that, in 2023, we’re able to join forces together and continue something that we felt had unfinished business.” The overall goal of the agreement and expansion is to help Black and Latino founders navigate the “frustration” of securing funding, earn the capital they deserve, and scale their businesses, Judge and Claure shared. Since the fund’s launch, it has invested $100 million in 75 companies, including Esusu, Atomic, Brex, Career Karma, Inc., and more, according to the press release. “Over 80% of them are B2B software companies,” Judge said. “And the companies and founders are performing really well. There’s an average of 100% year-over-year revenue growth across the portfolio. Even in these challenging times, those companies are graduating at a 75% rate once we invest.” #softbank #venturecapital #diversity #startups #tech https://lnkd.in/gq5eHuhM

Everyone has an unfair advantage. A first time founder has had their own experiences. A second time founder has made mistakes the first time. A third time founder can get funded based on what they did the first and second times. They have one advantage in common. They all started. I know founders that bootstrapped from day one. I know founders that spent over a year raising £250k. I know founders that raised £5m with an idea. They all had one advantage in common. They didn’t stop. Headlines and social media puts us in the relentless pursuit of the magic pill that solves everything for us. This makes us view success as the destination not the journey. Start today. Don’t stop. Keep going.

Early-stage investments stood at US$946mn in H1 2024, a decline of 19% from US$1.2bn in H1 2023. However, this is an 8% uptick over H2 2023. Seed-stage financing dropped to US$234mn in H1 2024 from US$407mn in H1 2023 and US$323mn in H2 2023. No new #unicorns were created in H1 2024, as against one in H1 2023. Only three IPOs took place, a decline from seven in H1 2023 and four in H2 2023. Tracxn #southeastasia #startupfunding https://loom.ly/LcHDJBA #e27News