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Firm targets $50 million projects in Nigeria this year

By Adeyemi Adepetun
26 January 2016   |   3:10 am
AFTER successful investments in four major start-ups in Nigeria last year, EchoVC, an experienced seed and early stage technology-focused venture capital firm, has anticipated making about 10 seed-investments this year. To achieve this, EchoVc is targeting about $50 million investments funds, either from the Federal Government, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and business developers, among others. EchoVC,…
PHOTO: businessdayonline.com

PHOTO: businessdayonline.com

AFTER successful investments in four major start-ups in Nigeria last year, EchoVC, an experienced seed and early stage technology-focused venture capital firm, has anticipated making about 10 seed-investments this year.

To achieve this, EchoVc is targeting about $50 million investments funds, either from the Federal Government, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and business developers, among others.

EchoVC, which said its strategy, underpins a disruptive approach to invest at the intersection of consumer, media, commerce, data technology and mobile devices layered by networked knowledge, disclosed that it targets equity and equity-related seed and early stage technology investments in Nigeria (and the broader Pan-African region).

At a media interaction, yesterday in Lagos, the Managing Partner, EchoVc, Eghosa Omoigui, disclosed that the firm was the sole manager of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s pioneering ICT Innovation Fund, where government committed $10 million to seed and early-stage investments in high-growth technology startups.

According to him, existing investors include a mix of domestic and foreign institutional investors and asset managers.

EchoVC Managing Partner noted that Nigeria, as one of the main growth drivers for Africa, was also one of the primary growth drivers for the firm.

“We seek to capitalize on Nigeria’s burgeoning period of growth in technology innovation and identify and invest in next generation companies that will lead this technology renaissance across the continent. The fund will also opportunistically evaluate investment opportunities in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia”, Omoigui stated.

He explained that EchoVC makes investments of $25, 000 to $1.5 million per startup with a goal of making investments throughout the life of the fund, adding that the focus is on technologies that support the ‘99 per cent bulge’ of underserved populations.

Omoigui, who listed some of the startups that benefitted from the investments last year to include hotels.ng and Printivo, said investments target high-growth services and scalable products in select markets, with distinct and sustainable competitive advantages, all of which affect daily life and provide essential services in large growing markets.

According to him, specific technology sectors of interest include consumer Internet and services; data; mobile; social, digital media; content and advertising; eCommerce and mCommerce; software; linguistics, gaming, business intelligence, last-mile services, tech-enabled services and enterprise infrastructure.”

Furthermore, he disclosed that EchoVc forecast a net job growth impact of over 35,000 created by companies that it looks to invest in out of the funds realized.

Omoigui disclosed that an Accenture research revealed that companies backed by venture capital have been a major driver of technological innovation, economic growth and job creation over the last 40 years.

According to him, EchoVc’s plans include to fill the seed and early stage financing gap by providing mentorship and institutional angel funding to promising entrepreneurs and co-developing and stimulating the existing local angel community; co-invest in first instructional financings of emerging market technology companies with traction; deliver value-add with formal knowledge transfer frameworks that cross-pollinate US/Asia/Africa-based entrepreneurial insight and work with portfolio companies to enhance enterprise and exit values.

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