AfriLabs Connect Deal Room (ACDR)

Problem Statement

Tech businesses are well known for their ability to deliver significant upside when successful leading to multiple returns on investment. For example, in 2021, Flutterwave raised a US$170 million Series C funding round. At the time, this was the largest amount secured by an African tech startup giving it a valuation of over US$1 billion, making Flutterwave a Unicorn. However, accessing investment funds is still regarded as one of the most significant challenges facing entrepreneurs across Africa. The challenge is more intense for tech startups, who are typically light on physical assets and cannot access capital from traditional sources like capital markets and banks. On the other hand, tech investors have become more sceptical about investment in African startups due to challenges such as access to decision-making data, poor infrastructure, no familiarity with local dynamics, and government policy. AfriLabs, the largest Pan-African network of innovation centers, has initiated the AfriLabs Connect Deal Room (ACDR) model to solve the problems of accessing investment in businesses and the issues of identifying de-risked startups on the continent for follow-on funding and scaling. Providing an authenticated pipeline of the most innovative scalable startups in Africa and and Matching them with Investment Funds.

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