Serena Williams joins Africa fundraising foray
Tennis star Serena Williams and NBK Capital Partners have joined a growing number of investors in African start-ups seeking to take advantage of a tech and innovative-finance boom on the continent.
Williams’s Serena Ventures, A&T Capital, Distributed Global and others participated in raising $6.5m (R100m) for Nigerian cryptoproducts developer Nestcoin, and NBK last week announced a $10m facility with Moove, Uber’s vehicle supply partner in Africa.
Start-ups in Africa have raised more than $125m so far this year, according to Bloomberg data. Africa is attracting angel and venture-capital funding as start-ups mushroom to help fill a gap in financial infrastructure and lastmile delivery of goods and services.
There were more than 500 earlystage deals in Africa last year — raising about $5bn — according to research provider Briter Bridges Intelligence.
Williams has previously invested in Andela, which trains software developers across Africa.
Nestcoin is focused on developing Web3 application products, based on cryptocurrencies or digital tokens tracked on blockchains. Its products include Breach, a media platform that provides educative information on cyberassets and promotes their adoption. Metaverse Magna is a Nestcoin gaming business that rewards players in cryptocurrencies, mostly bitcoin.
“We will continue to invest in Web3 applications in gaming, media, social platforms and payments,” said Nestcoin co-founder and CEO Yele Bademosi.
Nestcoin is among companies that have jumped onto Web3 technology as it becomes more popular globally. Much of the $30bn that venture capitalists invested in crypto projects last year went into Web3 start-ups.
Africa’s cryptocurrency market grew by 1,200% to be worth more than $105bn between July 2020 and June 2021, said research firm Chainalysis.
Nestcoin, started by Bademosi and Taiwo Orilogbon in November, joins a growing list of Africa-focused startups raising money from investors seeking returns from emerging and frontier markets.
Investors such as NBK said they are aware of the risks of investing in Africa, from regulation to governance and foreign-exchange shortages — and still think it’s worth it.
Moove has “increased Uber’s penetration in Sub-Saharan Africa”, said NBK CEO Yaser Moustafa. “It’s a rocket ship of a business. It’s growing thousands of percent every year. We think we can overcome any currency issues, tax issues, when we have that kind of growth and potentially expansion for them outside of Sub-Saharan Africa.”