Ingressive is a company that connects new generation of African innovators with global resources to help them scale. The Company was founded by Maya Horgan-Famodu, who is also the Executive Director, when she did a research and found out that most startups across sub-Saharan Africa fail to make it due to lack of credit, investors and entrepreneurship support infrastructure.
Maya argues that on average, the typical source of loan from any financial institution like banks charge an average interest rate of 25%. This intrest rate is exceedingly high and thus makes most startup entrepreneur shy away from seeking funding from such money lending institutions.
The next available source of funding would be investors and privat equity institutions within the local African market. However, there are not many startup success stories to talk about particularly in the tech space within the African ecosystem. Thus, investors have little to no confidence about investing their money in the domestic tech startup companies in sub-Sahara Africa. Unlike in North America where companies such as Google, Facebook and Uber among others serve as an example to boost private equity investors’ confidence in investing in tech startup companies.
To address all the above challenges, Ingressive was created to bring in the international investors mainly from the North America markets into the sub-Sahar Africa startup companies investment opportunities. Ingressive connects capital investors to vetted, high-growth but cash-strapped startups in sub-Saharan Africa. The company has over 20 on-ground sourcing partners coupled with analytical tools to monitor these startups.
In addition to helping sub-Saharan startups secure funding, Ingressive also help these startups in as far as technical support is concerned. In terms of helping them understand how much sales people they need to employ and how do they launch their products into the market.
Ingressive has also launched another program dubbed the Tour of Tech, that will take international investors on a leisure safari starting in Nairobi, Kenya and ending in Lagos, Nigeria. During the tour, Ingressive will connect the investors with tech executives, ministry officials and anybody needed in order to know how to invest in the local tech startup companies.
Ingressive knows international investors will be impressed by the vast array of startup companies from across the sub-Saharan Africa. The global investor, who understand the potential that lie behind the stats below, would want to be connected to viable startups emerging from the sub-Saharan Africa markets:
Six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa
The fastest growing consumer class
The youngest population
650 million mobile users
It will start by a two-day leisure safari in Nairobi, where the investors will get to meet tech executives, businessmen and ministries officials. The investors will meet all the relevant local stakeholders active in the local tech space, who will help them understand and invest or partner with local startup companies.
Next stop, will be Lagos, where investors will attend She Leads Africa and DEMO Africa; the two leading startups pitch platforms across the sub-Saharan Africa. Ingressive through the Tour of Tech, will connect investors and seasoned tech executives with tech startups companies across the sub-Sahara Africa. Aiming at not only securing angel investors for the African startups, but also establishing technical support for the startups that will improve their chances of being successful once they have secure the needed funds.