Uprise.Africa crowdfunding platform nets investment from Silicon Valley VC

SA equity crowdfunding platform Uprise.Africa has secured an undisclosed investment from Silicon Valley based venture capital (VC) firm Nexxus Ventures.

In a statement yesterday (23 October), Uprise.Africa said the investment round was concluded on a R60-million evaluation. Uprise.Africa added that the investment will enable it to launch new deals on its platform in the coming months.

The investment, Uprise.Africa said, was attributed to the platform being the only regulated equity crowdfunding platform in South Africa and to the “significant experience” of the platform’s CEO Tabassum Qadir (pictured above).

Uprise.Africa chief marketing officer Inge Prins told Ventureburn today (24 October) that the funding will be invested across the business with a critical focus on “improving user experience and enabling us to scale”.

Uprise.Africa said the investment round was concluded on a R60-million evaluation

The crowdfunding platform said that it will use its partnership with Nexxus Ventures to focus on identifying SA businesses with high growth potential and will, in addition, facilitate further funding for global expansion.

Qadir said in an earlier statement that the partnership with the Silicon Valley VC firm will play “an important role” in linking SA businesses looking to raise capital for global expansion through investment from Silicon Valley.

In August, Uprise.Africa closed the first equity crowdfunding investment round in the country with Drifter Brewing Company‘s campaign raising a total of R3 889 000.

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Featured image: Uprise.Africa CEO Uprise.Africa CEO Tabassum Qadir (CityNews INTL via Twitter)