" ITREALMS: Janngo dangles N24bn on tech startups for SDGs - ITREALMS

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Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Janngo dangles N24bn on tech startups for SDGs - ITREALMS

Janngo Capital Startup Fund is dangling the sum of €60m, about N24,139,583,166.97, Venture Capital endowment dedicated to financing tech-enabled startup accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa, reports ITREALMS.

This came on the heels of a €15m anchor invested by the European Investment Bank into Janngo.

Disclosing this on the eve of its participation to the 50th World Economic Forum, the Executive Chair of Janngo and Managing Partner of Janngo Capital, Fatoumata BA, pledged €60 million to back technology startups with a double bottom line approach through its dedicated investment vehicle Janngo Capital Startup Fund.

The fund, Fatoumata said, is a first of its kind Venture Capital & Impact vehicle investing from seed through growth stage across Africa and targeting at least 50 per cent of startups founded, co-founded or benefiting women.

Also, Fatoumata said, this initiative is part of Janngo’s broader commitment on financing the SDGs in Africa, as a member of the Goalkeepers Community and the Global Future Council on the New Economic Agenda of the World Economic Forum.

“Entrepreneurship, a powerful engine to provide decent economic opportunities and create jobs in Africa,” Fatoumata said.

ITREALMS gathered that on the African continent, about 3 million jobs are created annually when at least 20 to 30 million jobs will be needed to absorb its fast growing labour force in the coming years.

Based on the aforementioned context, Fatoumata noted that unlocking entrepreneurship is a critical lever to massively increase the supply of decent jobs and bridge the unemployment gap, both in the formal or informal sector.

“In 2050, we’ll be roughly 2.2 billion people in Africa, which means that we need to find now massive ways to feed, educate, house, care for and employ more than 1 billion people in less than 30 years. We believe traditional development models have failed because they were unbalanced and unsustainable either only focusing on commercial returns or too heavily aid-based : our thesis strikes the right balance between delivering solid returns to our investors while being socially accountable, solving key market failures and leveraging technology to help leapfrog development. 

"That's our ikigai, our reason for being, as Janngo means “Tomorrow” or “Future” in Fulani.” Fatoumata pointed out.

Chuks Egbune/Editor

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