Beyond Capital Ventures, a new women-led impact venture capital business, is thrilled to announce its second investment: Kasha Global, East Africa’s premier femtech retailer for high-quality, affordable health and personal care items. With a $300,000 investment, Beyond Capital Ventures is heading Kasha’s Series A2 Bridge fundraising round.
“The truth is, women are very influential customers in consumer products, health and family related household purchases. But when you look at how tech solutions are traditionally built, they are usually built by men for men. The largest customer base in health and personal care, which is women, is massively underserved,” says CEO Joanna Bichsel. “I want Kasha to make sure that no woman ever has a difficult time in getting the self-care products she needs to live her best life.”
Why The Investor Invested
Kasha presently operates in Rwanda and Kenya, and has supplied over 8 million goods to far. The company wants to “disrupt global health forever,” according to Bichsel, by becoming a global leader in the provision of products and information related to women’s health and personal wellness in Africa.
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“We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Kasha. Joanna and her team are deeply passionate about revolutionizing women’s access to healthcare,” said Eva Yazhari, Beyond Capital Ventures General Partner. “The team’s passion and commitment has allowed Kasha to navigate the pandemic and enter 2022 stronger than ever. I look forward to supporting Kasha and seeing what this next phase of growth has in store for them.”
Beyond Capital Ventures is a women-led impact venture capital business focused on emerging countries, with a diversified, dynamic, and low-risk portfolio. The company invests in the next wave of technologies that will meet the needs of India’s and East Africa’s 1 billion+ consumers. Beyond Capital Ventures will invest in conscious leaders establishing firms to solve expanding needs in “need-to-have” areas, primarily healthcare, agriculture, and financial inclusion, and will open in Spring 2021. The fund will also be the first to use an Equitable Venture structure, which gives Series A level founders a profit share in the GP carry. http://www.beyondcapitalventures.com
A Look At What Kasha Global Does
Kasha was founded in 2016 by CEO Joanna Bichsel, who previously worked at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a Principal Technology Advisor for Global Development and at Microsoft in various roles. Kasha was inspired by Joanna’s own motherhood journey and the lack of affordable women’s health and wellness products in Africa and other emerging markets.
In East Africa, Kasha has become a well-known and trusted brand. By selling health and pharmaceutical products to smaller stores, the company empowers its primarily female client base and network of sales agents, as well as reaching consumers directly to the last mile. Kasha’s revolutionary mass market consumer-facing platform also disseminates health and wellness information for women.
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Kasha is unusual among its competitors in that it provides both online and offline services to people of all income levels. Kasha’s extensive delivery ecosystem has made it the only digital rural delivery service of any type in several parts of Kenya.
Beyond Capital Ventures Kasha Beyond Capital Ventures Kasha
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer