ShEquity, a gender-lens investment firm that seeks to address Africa’s gender funding gap by making smart investments in African-owned and led businesses, has announced its investment in a Nigerian fintech startup, Owoafara Inc, led by Tale Alimi. Owoafara’s platform provides digital banking to assist the unbanked population of the world in accessing financial products and services that suit their daily needs through payments, credits, savings, health insurance, and pensions on a single platform.

The addition of Owoafara illustrates ShEquity’s unrelenting commitment to providing smart investments for African female entrepreneurs and innovators and also represents a significant milestone as the Firm’s maiden Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is now fully vested.

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The global fintech market size is expected to increase with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% during the forecast period to reach USD 332.5 billion by the year 2028. With a population of 218 million and women representing the majority of informal employment estimated at 125 million (57.7% of the population), Nigeria represents an enormous market potential for Owoafara. Based on a survey conducted by Ernst & Young in collaboration with the Fintech Association of Nigeria, 57% of 290 fintech Nigerian businesses surveyed generate more than $5 million in respective sales.

Through Owoafara’s digital platform and card services, member businesses are verified and provided with a variety of financial services including credit not normally provided by banks.

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Commenting on the investment, ShEquity’s Founder and Managing Partner, Pauline Koelbl, said, “The investment in Owoafara illustrates ShEquity’s singular focus on providing catalytic investments to African women entrepreneurs and innovators. Having been selected from the participants of the first ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA) cohort, Owoafara also testifies to SHEBA as a trusted pipeline for high-growth and high-impact deals. Through our existing eight portfolio companies, we impact over 14 million lives and contribute to all 17 United Nations SDGs. With this ninth investment, ShEquity has now fully vested its maiden special purpose investment vehicle, reaching a key milestone for the Firm. We have now begun the transition process to a venture capital fund structure, which will allow ShEquity to increase its socioeconomic contribution to the African Continent.”

Tale Alimi, Co-founder and CEO of Owoafara, commented, “We at Owoafara are thrilled to partner with ShEquity to accelerate our growth, broaden our impact, and support us to competitively scale in West Africa. Eighty percent of our current loan book are to unbanked women micro-entrepreneurs. We are proud that our products promote an inclusive fintech sector wherein hardworking informal women entrepreneurs can increase their earnings capacity and strengthen their economic agility to resist financial precarity, thus ensuring long-term livelihood and family security.ShEquity’s investment will support us in reaching one million underserved micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses by 2023.”

Owoafara is among sixteen businesses that graduated from the first cohort of the ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA) in September 2021. The USAID Trade Hub-backed initiative, SHEBA, addresses the existing gender funding gap by de-risking African female-led businesses and getting them to become investment-ready.

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The USAID Trade Hub support to ShEquity also includes investable first loss guarantee to catalyze investors for the VC Fund. ShEquity established SHEBA in March 2021 in collaboration with its implementation partner, MBC Africa, and has successfully completed two anglophone cohorts, with 30 participants onboarded in each cohort. To date, a total of 35 startups have completed the program, and ShEquity has recently launched the inaugural Francophone cohort of 30 participants.

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. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh