Sebastian Patel - Afrikan Heroes

South African Investment App Franc Secures $515K To Boost Growth

June 10, 2022

South African app for local investment Franc has launched Franc Business, a business-to-business (B2B) solution, after raising R8 million in seed capital. 4DX Ventures, a Pan-African-focused venture capital firm, contributed to the money.

Dr Thomas Brennan, an engineer and former head of digital innovation at Discovery Health, and Sebastian Patel, an actuary with 17 years of experience in financial services, founded Franc in 2017.

They came up with the concept out of irritation with the difficulties and restrictions to investing in the stock market, as well as worry about the low rate of investment among South Africans (less than 8%) outside of retirement products.

The mobile app allows users to invest in money market funds (Allan Gray Money Market Fund) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) (Satrix 40 ETF). Users can invest as much as they want, when they want, using the mobile application.

The latest round of funding will go toward the fintech company’s B2B initiative, which allows businesses to offer quality investment products to their own consumers by utilizing Franc’s application programming interface (API) and license.

“With Franc, consumers may start investing within minutes of installing the app and, if necessary, recover their assets within a few days of requesting a withdrawal using the app,” explains Brennan, Franc’s CEO.

“The simplicity and low cost of Franc Business are its advantages. We provide a single API as a B2B play, which allows us to swiftly and effectively interface with client platforms.”

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the firm claims that many South Africans are using the app for the first time to invest and save for a rainy day.

“Franc Business clients can allow their customers start saving or investing instantly, without the headache of regulatory red tape and extensive technical development,” says Patel, Franc’s COO.

According to Patel, Franc Business is aimed at any platform with a value store or partners looking to expand their existing product offering, such as short-term or life insurers, neo-banks, HR/payroll providers, buy-now-pay-later, and early salary access providers.

Peter Orth, managing partner at 4DX Ventures, comments on his firm’s choice to invest in Franc: “We’re committed to making it easier for everyone to save and invest, as it’s a crucial component of building wealth over time. We believe Franc has a terrific vision for how they can accomplish this in South Africa, and we are pleased to support them.”

The Allan Gray Money Market Fund returned roughly 4.5 percent over the last 12 months, whereas the Satrix 40 ETF returned 12 percent interest per year on average over the last three years and 10 percent interest per year on average over the last five years.

“Given consumer awareness of the need to save and the exponential growth in digital adoption of financial services products, we believe the time is most appropriate for the Franc Business savings and investment solution as a market value-add,” Patel adds.

South African Franc investment South African Franc investment

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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

South African Fintech Startup Franc Secures $300k In On-going Seed Round

July 7, 2020

Perhaps interested investors may still get on board as South Africa’s fintech startup Franc’s seed round continues. So far, the startup has raised US$300,000 in funding over the course of the past six months of 2020, and would be looking for more from interested investors.

“We are still in the process of trying to raise further funding, and confirming new investors as we go along,” Co-founder Sebastian Patel said in an interview with Disrupt Africa. “Most was committed pre-COVID, but we have also got two new investors on board in the last two months.”

The startup plans to use the investment to further its growth. Since its public launch in October of last year, Franc has reportedly had 14,000 downloads.

Its user base has doubled in the last three months, and a total of US$160,000 has been invested through its platform so far, Patel said.

“We want to democratise access to investing by making investing easy and accessible. We want everyone to be able to create wealth and realise their dreams,” Patel said.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Launched in May 2018 by Sebastian Patel and Thomas Brennan, Franc is an investment robo-advisor that helps people who have never invested before access the best cash and equity funds in the market.
Having bootstrapped until now, the startup has over the last six months raised US$300,000 in seed funding as part of an ongoing round.
Currently only operating in South Africa, Franc nonetheless has the ambition to expand into other African jurisdictions. Users pay an all-in fee of one per cent of investments to invest through the app.

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