PanAfrican Capital Holdings (PAC Holdings) has set up The Catalyst, a venture capital project, to identify and invest in growth to product-expansion stage startups with convincing business models and market opportunities.
As a proprietary investment company with the focus to offer strategic investment solutions and unlock value across emerging and frontier markets across Africa, PAC Holdings says it acknowledges the vital role of technology in driving economic growth in Africa.
According to the Venture Capital in Africa Report, 90% of all reported VC deals between 2014 and 2020 were in technology-enabled companies operating across a variety of sectors. Financials accounted for the largest share of VC deals by both volume (22%) and value (26%) from 2014 – 2020, with Information Technology (18%) and Consumer Discretionary (16%) accounting for the second and third largest share of VC deals by volume within the same timeframe. This trend is expected to continue with more opportunities for technology solutions arising in a post covid world.
”The Catalyst Project has been set up to facilitate and finance the delivery of technology enabled solutions, as well as promote African entrepreneurship. Our industries of primary focus are pivotal gears of a digital African economy, and these include finance, education, health, agriculture and logistic. The project’s target is to inject an initial sum of $1,000,000 into ‘growth stage’ businesses that meet its criteria of; a clearly defined minimum viable product, solving a need/gap either on the demand or supply side in Africa, generating revenue enough to cover direct costs, seeking capital to boost expansion required to achieve exponential scale and little or no debt balances in the company’s balance sheet.” Toluwalope Oni, Global Coordinator of The Catalyst said.
Some of the objectives for the initiative include driving a culture of innovation and contributing to the delivery of forward-thinking market value across Africa.
The identified sectors, given current macro-economic realities, represent the key underlying catalyst for Sustainable Economic Growth in emerging and frontier economies. Selected businesses that become successful would benefit from PAC Holdings access to an ecosystem of strategic investors & mentors, and enjoy product/service synergies.
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