EVentures Africa Fund Raising Money to Invest in Continent's Wireless Boom
Dutch venture capital fund eVentures Africa aims to invest 20 million euros ($28 million) to invest in mobile-based commerce systems, online markets and social media Internet sites in sub-Saharan Africa.
Managers of the fund expect to conclude talks with South African, Dutch and Middle Eastern investors and have the money available by year-end, Managing Director Vincent Kouwenhoven said yesterday in an interview in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. He declined to name the potential investors.
“Mobile commerce in Africa isn’t just copying and pasting what has been done in the West, it is where it’s being innovating,” Kouwenhoven said.
Services such as Safaricom’s M-Pesa, short for mobile money in Swahili, a cellphone-based money transfer and payment system, shows that Africa is both spurring innovation and a growing consumer market for new technologies, Kouwenhoven said.
The fund, which started operating in January, has invested in six projects worth about 500,000 euros, including an Internet payment system in Kenya known as PesaPay, a local version of PayPal, and Ghanaian web developer Explainer DC, he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at Smcgregor5@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
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