">
TechMoran
  • About Us
  • Deals
  • Jobs
  • Motoring
    • Money
  • Pitch Your Startup
  • Submit Your Post
  • Freelance Gigs
  • Travel
  • Men’s Corner
  • Dating
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
  • Startups
  • Reviews
  • Insider
    • Obituaries
  • Business
  • Women
  • Blockchain
  • Columnists
  • Hacks & Facts
    • How To
  • Editions
    • US Edition
    • India Edition
    • MENA Edition
    • Asia Edition
    • Europe Edition
    • International Edition
No Result
View All Result
TechMoran
">
Home Startups

Lateral Capital leads Series A round into Kenya’s blue-collar jobs marketplace Lynk

Sam Wakoba by Sam Wakoba
2 years ago
in Startups
11 min read
0

Lateral Capital, which has invested in a number of companies including Appzone, Asoko Insight, Koko Networks, Sparkmeter, Workstyle, Medsaf among others has invested into Kenya’s Lynk, a blue-collar jobs marketplace for local growth.

The investment was led by Lateral Capital’s Samakab Hashi, with participation by Kenyan Cornerstone Group.

“We are excited to continue on our journey with Lynk as they expand beyond Kenya. We are thrilled to announce our 9th portfolio addition with our investment in Kenya’s Lynk. The informal economy represents ~80% of Kenya’s GDP. Lynk’s founding team have deployed a technology solution to gigify the informal economy by rolling out a “trust” platform that unlocks the services and products of informal workers,” said Rob Eloff, Managing Partner at Lateral Capital.

Launched in 2016, Lynk has built a marketplace matching blue-collar workers to gigs according to their experiences and skills. The marketplace, which recently introduced a shop section to promote artisans wares on its platform, has not had a huge reach and impact as expected due to the reach of social media platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Instagram which have a wider and trusted reach than Lynk.

A similar platform, Mercy Corps-backed KibaruaNow shut down after a tough run. The firm unsuccessfully tried to be a TaskRabbit for Kenya and eventually East Africa.

Its closure was followed by a closure of Naspers-backed general classifieds marketplace OLX a few years later which has been replaced by Jiji. Ringier’s PigiaMe hasn’t done much to venture into the gigs section but has remained steady in its general marketplaces market.

Craiglist hasn’t done much either in Kenya and was only popular for its personals section. People seem to go to Facebook Groups to ask for recommendations instead of gigs marketplaces that do very little to vet members or gigs so that they build metrics for competitions and investors.

READ  uAfrica.com, South African eCommerce Firm Expanding to Nigeria, Kenya & Uganda

Related posts

Kenya’s Insuretech startup Pula raises $6m to scale up operations in 13 markets across Africa

January 26, 2021
0

Finnfund & Norfund double Starsight’s funding to $20 million for Ghana expansion

January 23, 2021
0

African tech startup funding passes $700m in 2020 despite COVID-19

January 23, 2021
0

Free money transfer service Taptap Send launches its services to Kenya

January 22, 2021
0

Another promising player Kisafi has not had much inroad into the Kenyan market since launching. And TaskGuru stopped at launching. Though Kenya’s internet penetration is growing, internet services, especially which require ratings or reviews have failed to pick in the market as word of mouth referrals are still king.

Otherwise, with the investments, Lynk has raised from competitions, angels and grants, its impacts would have been felt already. In the short-run, Lynk’s return to investments will not be as attractive as the gig economy promises or seems to look, profitability might be harder to come by.

Kenyan startup Taskwetu also shut operations a few months after launch. KibaruaNow also had a B2C and B2B focus and had big-name clients in the Kenyan corporate sector but death is not ashamed to go for the mighty. Lynk is likely to see the wrath of Facebook Marketplace when it launches fully locally.

Lateral Capital invests in early and growth-stage technology startups in sub-Saharan Africa in financial services, energy, healthcare, and education.

“Our aim is to partner with visionary entrepreneurs with a demonstrated commitment to our mission and first-principles thinking in profitably solving these pressing challenges,” said the firm. “We make debt and equity investments ranging from $250k-$5m in high-growth, revenue-generating ventures while targeting yield and capital appreciation for our investors. As entrepreneurs ourselves we know that success requires more than capital alone. The people we invest in are the single most important factor in our combined prosperity,” the firm added.

READ  SchoolApply.ng Wants to Help Nigerian Students to get International Admissions
Readers 5,662

Share

  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Sam Wakoba

Sam Wakoba

Taking you on tour through Africa's tech ecosystem, one startup at a time! [email protected]

Related Posts

Startups

Kenya’s Insuretech startup Pula raises $6m to scale up operations in 13 markets across Africa

January 26, 2021
0
Startups

Finnfund & Norfund double Starsight’s funding to $20 million for Ghana expansion

January 23, 2021
0
Startups

African tech startup funding passes $700m in 2020 despite COVID-19

January 23, 2021
0
Startups

Free money transfer service Taptap Send launches its services to Kenya

January 22, 2021
0
Health

54gene launches a genome sequencing lab to track infectious and non-communicable diseases prevalent in Nigeria

January 22, 2021
0
Startups

Uganda’s Innovex raises funding from Gaia Impact Fund to enable remote monitoring for solar companies

January 22, 2021
0
Startups

Aerobotics Raises $17 Million Led by Naspers To Scale AI for Agriculture Globally

January 21, 2021
0
Startups

Tanzanian money remittance startup NALA is launching in the UK

January 21, 2021
0

https://bit.ly/2VOxuoBhttps://bit.ly/2VOxuoBhttps://bit.ly/2VOxuoB
ADVERTISEMENT

Join our Mailing List

Loading

Recent Posts

Samsung, Safaricom partner to push Samsung Galaxy S21 pre-orders

January 26, 2021

Safaricom’s M-PESA Bill Manager brings digital receitps, bills and invoices to businesses & landlords

January 26, 2021

8 Facts People Don’t Know About Bitcoin

January 26, 2021

Stranded in Lockdown? Here Are 3 Ways You Can Make Money Via Cryptocurrencies Online

January 26, 2021

3 Tips On Avoiding Cryptocurrency Scams

January 26, 2021
">
">

Follow Us

">

There are many sites out there focused on blowing off some steam, from funny entertainment to thrilling experiences like playing online, in some cases online gaming could grant you the chance to win extra money. We came across rocketpot.io while browsing for a good btc casino online and it left us a very good impression with their wide variety of games and crypto offering.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

© 2019 Moran Media Group - All rights reserved TechMoran.

No Result
View All Result
  • Startups
  • Reviews
  • Insider
    • Obituaries
  • Business
  • Women
  • Blockchain
  • Columnists
  • Hacks & Facts
    • How To
  • Editions
    • US Edition
    • India Edition
    • MENA Edition
    • Asia Edition
    • Europe Edition
    • International Edition

© 2019 Moran Media Group - All rights reserved TechMoran.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
%d bloggers like this: