Abidjan Based Startup Studio Janngo Raises USD 1.1 Mn Seed Funding
Janngo, a Startup Studio based out of Abidjan has raised its first funding round of USD 1.1 Mn from a consortium of African and European investors including the Mulliez Family, Clipperton Investment bank and Soeximex. The announcement was made public during Paris Tech for Good Summit and Viva Technology.
With the newly raised investment, Jaango is planning to launch new digital platforms offering solutions to African SMEs. The startup also unveiled the opening of its Paris and Abidjan offices and its plans of venturing into marketplaces and SaaS business models.
Fatoumata Bâ
“With Janngo, we want to empower African SMEs, leveraging technology to improve access to market and business performance. We build turnkey solutions to support their growth, access new market opportunities, build capacity, improve their productivity and boost their competitiveness,” explains Fatoumata Bâ, Founder & CEO of Janngo, who was previously the Managing Director of Jumia in Nigeria and Member of Jumia Executive Committee at Africa level.
Benoît Leclercq, who is the President of Pole Innovation Metiers of Mulliez Family says “We are excited to be leading Janngo’s first funding round as they embark on a journey of building world-class digital services for SMEs, at the backbone of african economies.”
Nicolas von Bulow, Managing Partner at Clipperton, explains that it is unusual for investment bankers to join a company at a seed round, but Janngo is an exception. He added,”We see them as a potential tech champion in Africa, in line with our core focus and positioning as technology experts for high growth tech companies with global ambitions.”
Soeximex Group is very proud to be backing Janngo. We were not only convinced by the relevance of their vision but also by the strong social component of their approach. Our African roots motivate us to endeavour to give back to this amazing continent, while contributing to build robust business models, capable of delivering economical performance for the ecosystem.” highlights Christel Dagher Hayeck, Senegalese-born Director of Soeximex
For our readers who are not aware of what a startup studio/Venture Builder is; they’re companies which evolve themselves through a combination of start-up developments, shared resources and hard work.
A Startup Studio is not to be misinterpreted as an accelerator or incubator. The benefit to building several start-ups at once is the ability to rapidly develop and provide prototypes of products. At the same time, there are many flaws and downsides of running a studio. The venture-building philosophy is a rising movement in the tech and start-up industries and the world has seen some notable venture builders include Obvious Corp., which spun off Twitter and Medium; and Germany’s Rocket Internet which has given us ventures like Jumia.
That being said, in a context where African countries are getting ready to tackle an unprecedented demographic challenge with more than 900 millions of jobs needed to absorb the growing labor pool by 2030, Initiatives like Janngo may develop a double bottom-line approach boosting value creation from African start-ups and SMEs while contributing to the economic empowerment of women and youth.
