WEST AFRICA – Janngo Capital, a West Africa focused startup fund has secured US$13.8 million (EUR 12.5 million) from the Europe Investment Bank to fund its operations.

Digest Africa reported that “the fund will be set up to support new startups in the digital and technology sectors (high-tech companies), with the main focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.”

A statement by EIB noted that Janngo Capital fund strategy is to generate returns through an active hands-on approach of the Janngo team in the portfolio companies.

EIB further revealed that the Janngo team will seek to create value through an active management approach leveraging their entrepreneurial background to drive the growth and profitability of portfolio companies.

Janngo will also focus on building capacity of startups in terms of business management, corporate governance as well as environmental and social standards.

There has been a surge in the number of the number of funds raising venture capital globally with individuals, institutions and economies who are looking to strategically take advantage of the startup wave giving their capital contribution.

According to a report from the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook, VC funds in the U.S. raised $55.5 billion from investors throughout 2018.

A report by Digest Africa on the other hand shows, that Africa venture capital funds  raised US $740 million during the same period with a significant number of contributors being Development Finance Institutions.

 The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), CDC Group and the European Investment Bank (EIB) were among the most active development financing institutions (DFIs) acting as Limited Partners, seeding funds targeted towards African startups.

The Janngo team is led by Fatoumata Ba who also doubles as the Chief Executive Officer. She is mostly known for launching Jumia in Ivory Coast which she ran from 2013 to 2015 before moving to Nigeria to serve as General Manager of Jumia in Lagos.

In May last year, Janngo raised a EUR 1 million (US$1.11 million) Seed round to “to shape digital ecosystems and create pan-African tech champions” and later went ahead to launch its Paris and Abidjan offices.