Raise, a Nairobi-based platform for investors, startups, employees and law firms to manage equity for corporate structures in Africa and abroad, including legal compliance, digital share certificates, and fundraising support has raised an undsclosed funding from 500 Startups for expansion.
Raise aims to give technology startups around the world the right tools and infrastructure to support their growth and manage their corporate affairs by tracking share ownership, issuing and transferring shares, as well as preparing and filing yearly compliance reports.
According to 500 Startups, “As Africa’s fundraising market continues to grow, Raise’s vision is to become the pan-African securities exchange platform, making wealth and investment opportunities potentially available to every investor, founding team and employee through an open financial system for Africa’s digital equities. This will require bridging the gap between fragmented regulations and building relationships with government and regulatory agencies across the continent. The team is up to the challenge, and we’re excited to support them on this mission.”
Raise is the equivalent of U.S firms such as Carta, Pulley, Shareworks, and Captable.io, among others. The platforma also aims to help companies manage the entire fundraising cycle on the platform, opening data rooms for investor diligence, modeling fundraise scenarios, and issuing digital certificates and shares at close. Investors and employees benefit as well. By using Raise they can hold and track their equity directly and eventually use the platform to access liquidity.
The team includes Marvin Coleby, Co-founder and CEO, Tina Nyamache, co-founder and head of growth and Eugene Mutai, technical advisor. Raise subject matter expertise across securities law, fundraising, and compliance comes from working not only with large law firms and venture funds, but with early stage companies as well.
Even though 2020 was a slightly down year by aggregate amount of venture funding in Africa due to the pandemic, there was still $1.4B raised across 359 rounds, representing a 44% increase in the number of deals, an all time high for one year and 600% increase from just five years ago.
These numbers are just the start. As we’ve seen with markets around the world at 500, there are great founders everywhere. Africa’s technology ecosystem is just scratching the surface and Raise intends to help the new class of founders, employees and investors build it over the next decade and beyond.
Raise has started with a simple but difficult mission – to build the most efficient platform for private companies across Africa to manage their equity. But they don’t plan to stop there. Once equity ownership is clear, the next step is providing paths to additional investment and liquidity.