Mogadishu-based Premier Bank and Somalian business support organisation iRise Hub yesterday launched a $1-million fund aimed at backing the country’s startups.
Premier Bank chairman Jibril Mohamed (pictured above) announced the launch of the fund yesterday (25 October) during the closing ceremony of the 2018 Mogadishu Tech Summit which kicked off on Tuesday (23 October).
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We are happy to announce a one million Dollar fund for financing the startups in #Somalia in collaboration with Irisehub#MTS2018. Our Chairman, Jibril Mohamed has announced this at the Mogadishu Tech Summit closing ceremony. pic.twitter.com/V5xJd60pmc
— Premier Bank (@premierbankSO) October 25, 2018
It was not immediately clear whether the fund will invest in all kinds of startups, or just tech startups.
Premier Bank and Somalia’s iRise Hub has launched a $1-million fund aimed at backing the country’s startups
The summit organisers were expecting 5000 to attend, with Somalian Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre expected to give an address.
Ventureburn sought comment today from both the bank and the Mogadishu-based innovation hub on how the fund will be deployed, the fund’s investment ticket sizes and what kind of startups the fund will invest in.
However, neither of the two organisation was immediately available for comment.
The launch of the latest fund follows the launch in August by Norwegian investment firm Norfund and others of a $10-million fund, the Nordic Horn of Africa Opportunities Fund, to support small businesses in Somalia (see this Disrupt Africa story).
Featured image: Mogadishu Tech Summit via Twitter
Editor’s note (31 October): Ventureburn originally referred to Somalian entities as “Somali”. However, upon further research, Ventureburn has opted to change all references to “Somalian” to reflect the fact that “Somali” denotes the ethnic group and language, while “Somalian” refers to anything relating to Somalia or any of its inhabitants, regardless of their ethnicity.
