2019 has been a year for African startups. Julaya, the Ivory Coast-based fintech startup has raised US$550,000 in funding from French angel investors to grow its operations in the country.
“What is bringing success to fintech in Europe and is happening in Africa is the collaboration between startups with vertical synergies, from payments to wallets. Digital transactions are hard to start with because you need a lot of transactions volume to reach profitability, yet high volumes require important security expenditures against fraud and money laundering,’’ co-founder Charles Talbot said.
Here Is The Deal
- This round of investors are French business angels who have had previous success in the fintech space and who are, this time, sticking their stakes in the fintech startup.
- The startup Julaya plans to use the US$550,000 funding to speed up its growth and expand operations.
- Léopoldie said securing funding in Francophone Africa is challenging, but that the startup was “privileged” to have support from experienced angels and partnerships with local and pan-African payments startups.
What The Startup Does
Founded by Mathias Léopoldie and Charles Talbot in March 2018, Julaya provides small merchants and SMEs with access to digital financial services.
“We provide value to businesses with access to various digital financial transactions such as mobile money transfers, airtime top-up, and wire transfers to any banks,” said Talbot.
“The informal sector and SMEs are looking to improve their operations with safer and faster transactions.”
Why Startups In French speaking African territories may be having a hard time raising funds
While startup owners are not to blame for the language they speak, it appears however that language is actually a major barrier for most startups in the French-speaking countries. A look at the investment preference of investors and their countries of origin show a majority of investors coming from English-speaking countries, or having the major funds coming from English-speaking countries.
This lack of funding has therefore led to the dearth of developers and designers in francophone Africa. Most resources for startups in Africa(e.g. regional incubators and accelerators, labs, conferences) are mostly in the English-speaking countries.
Read also: Why Startup Ecosystem in Africa’s French-Speaking Countries Is The Least Funded In Africa
Another point investors may be taking into consideration may be the size of the market in the French-speaking countries.
“Investors tend to view most Francophone African markets as too small. In 2016, even after a deep recession, the Nigerian economy was worth US$405 billion. That same year, the ECOWAS markets excluding Ghana and Nigeria, and therefore primarily Francophone countries, only amounted to US$120 billion dollars, less than 30 per cent of the size of the Nigerian economy,” Fayelle Ouane is co-founder and managing director of Mali-based startup support organisation Suguba, which is running the Francophone-focused L’Afrique Excelle programme on behalf of the World Bank, noted.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world