Nigeria’s Microtraction announces its sixth deal, with cloud accounting startup

Lagos-based investment platform Microtraction has announced that it has invested in cloud accounting startup Accounteer — bringing the investor’s portfolio to six startups.

While Microtraction did not reveal the terms of the deal, the platform notes on the home page of its website that it ordinarily invests $65 000 in two stages.

It states that the first investment is usually about $15 000 in exchange for a 7.5% equity stake. This is then followed by an additional $50 000 convertible note at a $1-million valuation cap in companies that show “significant progress” after Microtraction’s initial investment.

With this latest investment, Microtraction, which was founded last year, now has up to six startups on its portfolio

The platform was founded last year by managing partner Yele Bademosi (pictured above). So far this year, Microtraction has been involved in at least four other investment deals.

In June, Disrupt Africa reported that the investment platform had made undisclosed investments in Nigerian startups CowryWise and Bitkoin Africa.

Here are @microtraction companies in the order they’ve been announced to date
1 @cowrywise | https://t.co/Lu9q3qf3IK
2 @buycoinsafrica | https://t.co/DUX7UpPL7m
3 @thewalletng | https://t.co/DsQqN6Q7nV
4 Allpro | https://t.co/W2lD0JF6q9
5 @ThankUCash | https://t.co/JTFYyPq0mz pic.twitter.com/Ce2DPiL1UQ

— Yele Bademosi (@YeleBademosi) August 20, 2018

In August, Disrupt Africa also reported that Microtraction had invested in two more startups — Wallet.ng and Allpro. The size of both investments was also not disclosed. In a post yesterday on Twitter, Bademosi said Microtraction had also invested in Nigerian fintech Thank U Cash.

Excited to announce our investment in @Accounteer, an online accounting software for SMBs. @NateKorl shared why we made this investment below and looking forward to @MerijnCampsteyn and team execute on digitizing financial books of SMBs across Africa.https://t.co/EKRMk6SCml

— Yele Bademosi (@YeleBademosi) October 8, 2018

Accounteer — which is based in Brussels, Belgium and has operations in Nigeria and 23 other countries on the continent — was founded in 2015 by CEO Merijn Campsteyn.

The startup has developed a cloud accounting platform aimed at small businesses. Last year the startup raised $20 000 in a seed round from Lagos-based Ventures Platform.

In a post on Medium yesterday (8 October), Microtraction principal investment associate Dayo Koleowo said the venture capital firm had invested in the accounting platform because of Campsteyn’s experience working with small businesses, his record managing companies and Accounteer’s traction.

“Accounteer showed significant traction at the time we invested. They were serving over 2500 businesses with users across several countries. They were growing at a 10% rate month on month and were generating approximately $10 000 monthly in revenue,” wrote Koleowo.

“We believed, in that instance, they were on the right track and they could only grow from that point and become an exceptional company, he added.

Featured image: Microtaction founder and managing partner Yele Bademosi (Wellsradio via Facebook)