Venture capital firm, and the Kenyan fundraising platform Raise, have jointly announced a partnership that saw Microtraction help mobilize $25,000 for Raise, an end-to-end fundraising platform, to help it build out its platform and scale. Raise was founded two years ago by Marvin Coleby and Eugene Mutai, while its alpha was launched in 2019 just before going public in June 2020.

Raise describes itself as a simple fundraising and equity management platform for Africa, with aim to drive founders to a faster product-market fit by empowering them with affordable online tools to raise faster and distribute equity to hire talent. Startups can manage electronic cap tables, automate financing contracts like SAFEs and share private deal rooms.

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“Raise’s mission is to simplify equity and democratise access to assets for Africans across the world, where people have the power to create financial independence for their communities, teams, and families,” Coleby, Raise’s chief executive officer (CEO), said.

Raise has now raised US$25,000 in return for seven per cent equity from VC firm Microtraction. Founded in 2017, Microtraction invests in startups at the very earliest stage of their development, and has so far backed a host of Nigerian startups, like Accounteer, Riby, Thank U Cash, CowryWise, Wallet.ng, Schoolable, 54gene, Termii and Festival Coins, as well as Ghana’s Bit Sika. Raise is its first Kenya-based investment, though it did invest in data marketplace CARMA but at the time the startup was relocating from Nairobi to Lagos.  

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Raise has so far scaled more than 200 companies, transacted over US$150 million in equity on the platform, and created over US$90 million worth of valuations. It has also partnered with Africa’s largest corporate law firms to continue onboarding users and scale across the continent, with Microtraction saying it was “laser-focused” on building Africa’s number one platform for equity and fundraising.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry