Market Intelligence data firm Asoko Insight has completed a $1.35 million fundraising round to deepen its research and analysis of more than a thousand privately held companies in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, the company’s top markets, and to extend regional operations and build out the technology behind its digital platform.
The round was led by North Base Media, CRE Venture Capital and exisiting investors Emergo Partners and J.E. Berman Associates as shareholders.
In a statement, Rob Withagen, co-founder and Managing Director of Asoko Insight, said: “This new funding will allow us to give customers insight on even more companies across Africa, while adding analytics in a seamless user experience. Africa’s got great corporations. Now it has great corporate data, available to everyone.”
The firm will use the cash to build the continent’s leading business intelligence platform, lower the cost of doing business, and make available intelligent and regularly updated information for regional and global corporates, investors, lenders, professional service providers, DFIs and governments looking to engage with African companies.
The firm’s data tools help other firms conduct business development and due diligence in Africa, an emerging financial market.
NBM Managing Partner Marcus Brauchli will join Asoko’s board. He is a former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. Also joining the board for NBM will be Stuart Karle, NBM’s general counsel and a former chief operating officer of Reuters News.
Jonathan Berman, CEO of J.E. Berman Associates and author of “Success in Africa: CEO Insights from a Continent on the Rise,” continues to serve as independent director.
Pardon Makumbe, Founding Partner at CRE Venture Capital observed, “One of the longest standing, albeit understated, impediments to doing business in Africa is the scarcity and price-tag of high quality, intelligent and actionable corporate and market information. Asoko’s pan-African business intelligence platform is tackling this challenge head-on, and will transform how people do business in Africa.” Pardon, a former Principal at EL Rothschild, will serve as a Board Observer.
