Janngo announces €60 million funding at Davos to back African startups with proven business models and inclusive social impacts

In Africa, only 3 million jobs are created every year when at least 20 to 30 million jobs will be needed to absorb its fast growing labor force in the coming years. In this context, unlocking entrepreneurship is a critical lever to massively increase the supply of decent jobs and bridge the unemployment gap, both in the formal or informal sector. That’s why Janngo, an African social startup studio and venture capital firm, is on a mission to help build digital ecosystems in high-growth sectors by providing business support and digital platforms which allow SMEs to scale.

Today, Janngo announced 60€ million pledge to back technology startups with a double bottom line approach through its dedicated investment vehicle Janngo Capital Startup Fund. The announcement came on the the eve of its participation to the 50th World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland.

Founded in 2018 by Fatoumata BA, the Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire-based venture capital firm helps build, grow and invest in pan-African startups with proven business models and inclusive social impacts. The fund is a first of its kind Venture Capital & Impact vehicle investing from seed through growth stage across Africa and targeting at least 50% of startups founded, co-founded or benefiting women. This initiative is part of Janngo’s broader commitment on financing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa, as a member of the Goalkeepers Community and the Global Future Council on the New Economic Agenda of the World Economic Forum.

“In 2050, we’ll be roughly 2.2 billion people in Africa, which means that we need to find now massive ways to feed, educate, house, care for and employ more than 1 billion people in less than 30 years. We believe traditional development models have failed because they were unbalanced and unsustainable either only focusing on commercial returns or too heavily aid-based : our thesis strikes the right balance between delivering solid returns to our investors while being socially accountable, solving key market failures and leveraging technology to help leapfrog development. That’s our ikigai, our reason for being, as Janngo means “Tomorrow” or “Future” in Fulani.” explains Fatoumata BA, Executive Chair of Janngo and Managing Partner of Janngo Capital.

African women are known to be the most entrepreneurial in the world with a 26% Total Entrepreneurial Rate in Sub-Saharan Africa where they are twice as likely to start a business than elsewhere (Source : Roland Berger). Yet, there is currently a $42 billion funding gap for women entrepreneurs in Africa according to the African Development Bank. Additionally, the larger the ticket size, the harder it is for women in emerging markets to get access to capital with only 10% of women entrepreneurs able to raise money from Series A vs 49% at seed stage.

“At Janngo, we believe that talent is equally distributed between men and women but opportunities aren’t; especially in terms of access to capital. That is why we are proud to be a female-led VC fund investing 50% of our proceeds in startups founded, co-founded by or benefiting women ” adds Fatoumata BA, Executive Chair of Janngo and Managing Partner of Janngo Capital.