Country for PR: United Kingdom
Contributor: PR Newswire Europe
Monday, January 20 2020 - 23:56
AsiaNet
Janngo Pledges Eur60 Million at Davos to Back African Startups Leveraging Technology to Achieve the SDGs
ABIDJAN, Cote D'lvoire, DAVOS, Switzerland and PARIS, Jan. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ -

Janngo [ https://www.janngo.com/ ] unveils Janngo Capital Startup Fund, Eur60m 
Venture Capital fund dedicated to financing tech-enabled startup accelerating 
progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa, with a 
Eur15m anchor investment by the European Investment Bank

On the eve of its participation to the 50th World Economic Forum [ 
https://www.weforum.org/ ], Janngo pledges 60Eur million to back technology 
startups with a double bottom line approach through its dedicated investment 
vehicle Janngo Capital Startup Fund. The fund is a first of its kind Venture 
Capital & Impact vehicle investing from seed through growth stage across Africa 
and targeting at least 50% of startups founded, co-founded or benefiting women. 
This initiative is part of Janngo's broader commitment on financing the SDGs in 
Africa, as a member of the Goalkeepers Community [ 
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers/ ] and the Global Future Council on 
the New Economic Agenda of the World Economic Forum.

Entrepreneurship, a powerful engine to provide decent economic opportunities 
and create jobs in Africa

In Africa, only 3 million jobs are created every year when at least 20 to 30 
million jobs will be needed to absorb its fast growing labor force in the 
coming years. In this context, unlocking entrepreneurship is a critical lever 
to massively increase the supply of decent jobs and bridge the unemployment 
gap, both in the formal or informal sector.

"In 2050, we'll be roughly 2.2 billion people in Africa, which means that we 
need to find now massive ways to feed, educate, house, care for and employ more 
than 1 billion people in less than 30 years. We believe traditional development 
models have failed because they were unbalanced and unsustainable either only 
focusing on commercial returns or too heavily aid-based : our thesis strikes 
the right balance between delivering solid returns to our investors while being 
socially accountable, solving key market failures and leveraging technology to 
help leapfrog development. That's our ikigai [ 
https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fchrismyers%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2Fikigai-1.jpg 
], our reason for being, as Janngo means "Tomorrow" or "Future" in Fulani," 
explains Fatoumata BA, Executive Chair of Janngo and Managing Partner of Janngo 
Capital.

Venture Capital as a way to bridge gender inequality in accessing funding

African women are known to be the most entrepreneurial in the world with a 26% 
Total Entrepreneurial Rate in Sub-Saharan Africa where they are twice (..)

Download Full Press Release HERE. 
[https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1079125/Janngo_Capital.pdf ]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1079126/Janngo.jpg 
PDF - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1079125/Janngo_Capital.pdf 
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1079127/Janngo_Logo.jpg 

Contact: hello@janngo.africa 

Source: Janngo
Translations

Japanese