Village Capital, PayPal launch African fintech investment readiness programme

Global venture capital (VC) firm Village Capital has collaborated with US payment platform PayPal to launch a three-month investment readiness programme, Village Capital Fintech Africa 2018.

The investment readiness programme will culminate in two early-stage African startups walking away with $50 000 in investment funding. Applications to the programme opened last week and will close on 24 November.

Application is open to early-stage fintech entrepreneurs from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

Between 10 and 12 startups will be selected to join the Village Capital Fintech Africa 2018 programme

Village Capital marketing manager Ben Wrobel stated in an email to Ventureburn that the VC firm was mainly looking for startups working on solutions across the fintech sector.

Focus areas include: insuretech, pensions and savings, credit scoring, consumer insights, and financial literacy among others.

Wrobel added that startups that are utilising fintech in agriculture, energy, education and health would also be considered.

Between 12 and 14 early-stage entrepreneurs will be selected to join the all-expenses paid investment-readiness programme.

As part of the programme, three workshops will be conducted by the Village Capital team and fintech experts between March and May next year.

“The first one will be held in Nairobi. We will decide on the locations of the second and third workshops once we see where the cohort comes from,” said Village Capital regional manager for Africa Adedana Ashebir (pictured above).

Ashebir said the workshops will focus on Village Capital’s Venture Investment-Readiness and Awareness Levels (VIRAL) Pathway framework.

The framework aims to make entrepreneurship more inclusive by simplifying communication around company maturity between entrepreneurs and investors, by using nine stages that companies must transition through and milestones that these startups must reach.

“The inspiration for this training was the realisation that investors weren’t speaking the same language. VIRAL helps entrepreneurs see through an investor’s lens. Topics covered include VIRAL self-assessment, product-market fit, scale and planning for investment,” said Ashebir.

Over the past five years, Village Capital has run seven programmes and made 13 investments in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Read more: PiggyBank, Olivine Technology awarded $50,000 in funding from Village Capital

Learn more and apply here.

Featured image: Village Capital regional manager for Africa Adedana Ashebir (Supplied)