6 African Women CEOs Discuss How They Raised more than $1M in 2021

By Tage Kene-Okafor

Row 1 L-R: Jessica Anuna, CEO, Klasha; Honey Ogundeyi, CEO, Edukoya; Jihan Abass, CEO, Lami Row 2 L-R: Fara Ashiru Jituboh, CEO, Okra; Tebogo Mokwena, CEO, Akiba Digital; Nelly ChatueDiop, CEO, Ejara

WOMEN-FOUNDED COMPANIES in the U.S. raised more money from venture capitalists in 2021 than ever. Reports indicate they secured 83% more funding than the previous year, primarily attributed to the record-setting $329 billion U.S. startups raked last year.

But according to data from PitchBook, less than 2% of VC funding went to all-women-founded teams in 2021. It’s identical to what’s happening in Africa: Less than 1% of all VC dollars went toward startups with one or more women founders last year, according to The Big Deal, which details investments in Africa. On the bright side, founding teams counting both women and men as members raised 17% of VC investments in Africa in 2021.

These numbers are more frightening when retraced almost a decade back. According to Briter Bridges, another publication that tracks VC investments in Africa, only 3% of the total funding raised by startups in Africa since 2013 has gone to all-women co-founded teams.

So despite total funding for women-founded companies reaching $834 million in 2021, per Partech Africa — a VC firm and data tracker of African investments — and the number of women in venture capital increasing, their representation remains minute against a faster-growing percentage of startups run by men.

Women CEOs from page 85

Women-founded startups in Africa to have raised $100 million or more are led mainly by white CEOs. Not that it’s any fault of theirs, but the representation of their companies being Africabased skew funding results in such a way that they don’t capture how much of an enormous feat it is for African women to raise $1 million.

Before 2021, only a handful (women-led startups that raised $1 million or more with African women as CEOs) had secured that much funding. In 2021, 11 such startups achieved that feat, a record year for this group. We spoke with six of them to share their fundraising experiences in a venture capital market that can be unfriendly toward women.

Here’s who we talked to (read their full stories on the TechCrunch site at link show below): Jessica Anuna, founder and CEO, Klasha Tebogo Mokwena, co-founder and CEO, Akiba

Digital Fara Ashiru Jituboh, co-founder and CEO, Okra Jihan Abass, founder and CEO, Lami Honey Ogundeyi, founder and CEO, Edukoya Nelly Chatue-Diop, founder and CEO, Ejara Jessica Anuna, CEO, Klasha

Klasha is a technology company that allows international merchants such as H&M or Zara to receive payments online in local African currencies and money methods. African consumers can make payments to international merchants in over fi ve African currencies through the KlashaCheckout; the merchant then receives their payout in G20 currencies.

This allows international merchants to scale into Africa seamlessly through our technology and, in turn, allows African consumers to access global goods and services frictionlessly. Tebogo Mokwena, CEO, Akiba Digital

Akiba Digital is a South African-based fi ntech building an alternative credit scoring infrastructure (basically a new age credit bureau) for small businesses and individuals excluded by traditional credit bureau scores. I started this company after noticing a massive access problem experienced by thin-fi le individuals and SMMEs in South Africa, a problem that is prevalent in other countries in Africa. This segment often doesn’t access aff ordable credit (and other fi nancial services like insurance) and is excluded by high street lenders like banks. And I want to change that. Fara Ashiru Jituboh, CEO, Okra

Okra simply enables developers and businesses to build personalized digital fi nancial service products. Our mission is to digitize fi nancial services for Africa. Jihan Abass, CEO, Lami

Lami is a B2B2C insurance-as-a-service platform and API. Lami has digitized the entire insurance value-chain end to end from KYC, pricing, underwriting, and claims processing all in one platform, and API that can be used to distribute any insurance product at any point of sale. Honey Ogundeyi, CEO, Edukoya

Edukoya is an education technology company on a mission to make high-quality education more engaging, personalized, and accessible for the next generation of Africans. Our primary off ering e is an online mobile learning platform that connects primary and secondary school learners with the 99.9th percentile of certifi ed tutors for real-time one-on-one learning. Nelly Chatue-Diop, CEO, Ejara

Ejara is a crypto-led 21st-century fi nancial institution for Francophone Africans and its diasporas. We are building bridges between crypto and traditional fi nance by enabling access to various investment and saving off erings while incorporating African familial values of wealth and community into our construction. https://techcrunch. com/2022/03/15/6-africanwomen-ceos-discuss-howthey-raised-more-than-1min-2021 Image credit: LinkedIn, tissuepathology.com