Carbon, formerly Paylater has established the ‘Disrupt Fund‘, a $100,000 fund to scale and support new entrepreneurs and founders in Africa.
According to a statement from Carbon, the Disrupt Fund will invest up to $10 000 in innovation African startups for a five percent equity stake.
Successful entrepreneurs or founders will get access to Carbon’s API, allowing them to ride-on Carbon’s growing customer base and innovative technology platform, to scale market faster.
Startups that are operating in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and Egypt can apply for the Carbon powered Disrupt Fund.
To be eligible, interested startups must have a functioning product, post revenue and looking to operate in multiple countries.
The fund has a wide investment mandate but target sectors include insurance, health, education which have not seen as much investment as the fintech space.
“There are many excellent companies across the continent looking for the kind of scale Nigeria offers and we are excited to partner with them to provide the support and financial investment they need,” Carbon CEO and co-founder Chijioke Dozie.
Carbon co-founder Ngozi Dozie pointed out that a lot of money is spent by startups on acquiring customers, mainly via social media, when a more collaborative approach among tech companies could be more efficient.
“Our fund will enable this collaboration, allowing others to market to our customer base and vice versa — a win-win for everyone. As the saying goes, ‘if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’,” he said.
Launched in 2016, Carbon has to 2.1 million users, disbursed more than $63.7-million in loans in 2019 and processed more than $140-million in transactions.
In December 2019, Carbon expanded to Kenya. It also disclosed that it had launched its Carbon for Business platform, which provides startups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and Fintechs with the services and technology needed to build and scale their businesses.
More recently, Carbon launched the iOS version of its app.
Click here to apply.
