Senegalese startup PROBOUTIK, founded in 2022, has secured funding from Fuzé, marking a significant step forward in reshaping financial accessibility for businesses across the continent. PROBOUTIK introduces an advanced platform for loan and invoice management, leveraging digital innovation to streamline client accounts and provide financing opportunities through a loan marketplace. This strategic partnership holds the promise of catalyzing the growth of African enterprises.
Thierno Sakho, the CEO and Founder of PROBOUTIK, expresses the pivotal nature of this collaboration with Fuzé, stating, “Fuzé aligns perfectly with our aspirations beyond the MVP stage. The process has been remarkably swift, culminating in less than 6 months. Fuzé will be instrumental in our go-to-market strategy, aiming to empower over 10,000 merchants by year-end and bolster our technical team.”
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Isadora Bigourdan, CEO of Digital Africa, proudly welcomes PROBOUTIK into the Fuzé startup family. “Based in Senegal, PROBOUTIK brings an innovative solution to informal economy merchants, enabling them to digitize client management and debt tracking. With a background in banking, CEO Thierno Sakho and his team are committed to providing tailored financial services for these merchants, enabling them to play a pivotal role in shaping the agri-food industry’s value chain. Informal merchants in Africa represent more than 70% of household consumption, underscoring their significance in the distribution of consumer goods,” she says.
The FUZE investment mechanism, a cornerstone of this collaboration, has effectively transformed funding accessibility for burgeoning startups in Francophone Africa. Buoyed by an invigorated vision and fortified by Proparco’s support, Digital Africa stands poised to usher in a new era. This strategic endeavor aims to cultivate opportunities, facilitate funding avenues, and amplify visibility for startups at the forefront of crafting technological solutions aligned with Africa’s tangible economic landscape and its people.
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Digital Africa’s array of initiatives, including Bridge, Talents 4 Startups, and Fuzé, have already left indelible marks. The Talents 4 Startups program has garnered an overwhelming response, attracting over 10,300 applications from African youth. Collaborating with nine partner training organizations across ten countries, Digital Africa successfully trained 294 students in its pilot phase. Valuable partnerships with Make It and the German cooperation have expanded the program’s reach and impact. Job fairs and speed pitching events have facilitated connections between skilled talents and startups, fostering employment opportunities and entrepreneurship. Buoyed by this triumph, Digital Africa is gearing up for the second edition of Talents 4 Startups, intending to deploy 1,000 scholarships across Africa and enhance professional integration strategies in tandem with Edtech partners.
Fuzé, with an investment envelope of €6.5 million, comprises ideation tickets at €20K, follow-on tickets worth €30K, and cumulative tickets worth €50K. The mission is clear: to finance as many French-speaking African startups as possible, indefinitely supporting their expansion. The first ideation ticket is being tested at launch, with specific criteria mandating startup incorporation, presence of a co-founder from one of the covered countries, operation within Francophone African nations, and a technological solution in place.
This ticket delineation is not a constraint; rather, it addresses a specific need at a particular juncture in the startup’s development. Through other initiatives, Digital Africa will continue aiding businesses in later growth phases. For instance, the Bridge Fund by Digital Africa, launched in 2020 in collaboration with Proparco, offers bridge financing ranging from €200,000 to €600,000. Moreover, the collaboration with BPI France on Africa Next gathers a community of investors ready to support startups seeking to raise between €1 million and €10 million. The ethos behind Fuzé is to initially cater to startups’ financial needs during their inception and subsequently integrate them into a continuum armed with the requisite tools to flourish.
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