DigsConnect, a South African digital platform for student accommodation, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Intaba Capital as part of its ongoing Series A funding round. The platform was launched in 2018 by Alexandria Procter and Greg Ramsay-Keal, and allows landlords, estate agents, and property managers to post their property listings for students to search and filter through to find suitable accommodation and housemates.
Last year, DigsConnect closed a pre-Series A round of funding to expand internationally, with a focus on helping African students in the UK and US secure more affordable, convenient, and safe housing. The startup also partnered with Student.com, the world’s largest student accommodation site, to extend its presence to around 30 new countries and 400 new cities.
DigsConnect is currently raising its Series A round and has secured funding from Intaba Capital, a Cape Town-based women-led investment and advisory firm founded in 2019. The firm offers consultancy and advisory services, including financial and commercial due diligence, financial analysis, valuations, and assistance with capital raisings, mergers, acquisitions, and disposals.
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According to Procter, the investment from Intaba Capital came about after their work attracted the attention of a US-based charitable organization that wished to invest in their mission. The charity required an extensive due diligence process, which Intaba Capital was appointed to undertake. The team reviewed every transaction made on the platform, dating back to when Procter and Ramsay-Keal were working from a couch in an apartment.
Procter also noted that Intaba Capital assisted their company with financial modelling for their international growth, leading to the formation of an “incredible working relationship”. The investment from Intaba Capital marks the first bite out of DigsConnect’s ongoing Series A round. Procter added that it was rare to find an investment firm run by two extraordinary women, and she had been pitching to investors for almost six years.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard