daba Finance, a startup that enables investing in Africa’s best private and public companies seamlessly, has participated in a $2.6 million seed funding round by Nigeria-based Spleet, which provides residential rent management and financing products.
daba was launched in 2021 with a simple mission—to democratize investing in Africa by providing a barrier-free way for investors (of every level) to access curated investment strategies and build wealth by investing in the African private and public capital markets, through its all-in-one platform.
What is Spleet?
Spleet was founded in 2018, and its mission is to build a marketplace to connect landlords with vetted tenants looking for flexible rent payment options.
Image from Spleet
Why Spleet?
Spleet is one of the foremost startups disrupting Africa’s real estate and property market, which unlike industries such as financial services, has remained unchanged for decades. It has a focus on affordability, which remains a big pain point for residents in urban areas. This is partly because most tenants earn their incomes monthly and often find it difficult to afford the typical 1-2 years of advance rent demanded by homeowners.
Since its inception, Spleet has processed millions in rent, housed over 1,000 tenants with flexible payment options, and onboarded over 35 individual and corporate landlords.
What next?
According to Spleet CEO, Akintola Adesanmi, the funding will go into deepening its product offerings for landlords, real estate agents, and tenants across Nigeria while also testing out new markets.
“daba is proud to partner with Spleet on further scaling its robust solution that caters to the crucial needs of both sides of the housing market,” said Boum III Jr, co-founder and CEO of daba. “We’re even more motivated to help more investors back more of such companies and qualified ventures bypass the traditional barriers to accessing capital.”
Don’t miss the opportunity to invest in the next big startup. Taphere to download the daba beta application and use access code: daba3SJPov to start investing
With startups making the news and causing a ruckus for raising ridiculous amounts of funding and the VCs all swooping in to have a piece these last years, there has been a lot of talk on “startup investing” and how to go about it.
This article is here to help you break it down and thoroughly understand what it is and how to get the maximum benefit from it with daba.
Startup investing like a VC but cheaper
What is a startup?
A “startup” refers to an early-stage company founded and owned by one or more entrepreneurs, often with a new product or service and an untested business model. After finding a product-market fit, the goal is often to grow and expand rapidly, therefore, startups generally start with high costs and limited revenue. To achieve this, they look for capital from a variety of sources such as venture capitalists.
For a long time, investments in private companies like startups were reserved for ONLY accredited investors (people with a high net worth or an investment company e.g., venture capital firms) due to the large amounts required for startup investments and the high risk involved.
But with the advent of crowdfunding and law changes in lots of countries, people 18 and older can now invest in startups and gain high returns.
Why startups?
Startup investing, though risky like every other type of investment, has the potential to produce very high returns on investment if proper research and due diligence are done.
An example is Paystack, the Nigeria-based payments startup that makes it easy for businesses to accept secure payments from multiple local and global payment channels.
In 2020, US payment company Stripe acquired Paystack in a deal worth over $200 million. The angel investors who invested in the seed round of Paystack in 2016 made approximately 1,440% ROI, 14.4x their investment in just five years.
These show that although investing in startups could be risky, it could also be rewarding.
Now imagine if you had invested in 2017…..
How do you value a startup?
Before investing in a startup, it’s important to know the company’s value in actual figures. This provides insight into its ability to use the new capital to grow, and meet customer and investor expectations.
But deducing a startup valuation can be difficult. This is because company valuation is done using historical financial performance. However, most startups don’t generate profits or even revenue for a few years after starting, thus using traditional metrics for early-stage valuations doesn’t apply.
Generally, a startup valuation accounts for factors like your team’s expertise, product, assets, business model, total addressable market, competitor performance, market opportunity, goodwill, and more.
Valuing a startup is both an art and a science and some of the best ways to go about it include the cost to duplicate, market multiples, discounted cash flow, and valuation by stage.
Ways to invest in early-stage startups:
Equity investment: investors purchase shares in a startup at a fixed price
Investing in convertible securities: the investment amount is eventually converted to equity
Use a trusted investment platform like daba, sign up here for African startups
How do I choose startups to invest in?
Before investing in startups, it’s necessary to conduct your due diligence; a series of checks an investor might run on a startup to confirm that the investment is a good strategic fit and to identify potential red flags. Due diligence allows investors to make informed investment decisions and mitigate risk.
How do I get a return on my investment?
Startup investors can get returns when:
i) The company is bought by a bigger organization
ii) The startup goes public
iii) Dividend payments (if the business is successfully trading, and the founders are not looking for an exit via sale or IPO, they may reward investors by paying out regularly or through a one-time special dividend)
iv) Selling your stake in the company
v) Revenue from the day-to-day running of the startup
Startup investing is very risky (90% of startups fail in their first five years) but can be highly rewarding for investors willing to sit tight until the startup matures.
As the saying goes in finance; the riskier the asset, the higher the return. This is evident in the technology sector. An example is Cisco’s $3.7 billion purchase of AppDynamics, app management, and analytics tool in 2017. The latter was launched in 2008 and had been through five funding rounds, suggesting several investors got sweet returns from the deal.
It’s important to note that the return on investment you get as an investor depends on the size of your stake in the startup and the valuation it’s based on.
How to get started?
There is no need to worry about how to source for startups, their valuation, founders, how much to invest, and monitoring your investment, daba can help you get started.
daba has created a simple app to access custom investment strategies and build wealth by investing in Africa’s best private and public market opportunities.
In addition to this, daba offers resources help you sharpen your knowledge and make more informed investment decisions.
Communiqué de Presse – États Unis – 11 Juillet 2022
daba, une fintech qui développe l’infrastructure d’investissement tout-en-un pour l’Afrique, est heureuse d’annoncer que la version bêta sera mise en ligne sur l’Apple App Store et Google Play Store le vendredi 15 juillet 2022.
Après avoir accumulé une liste d’attente sursouscrite qui a attiré plus de 5 millions de dollars d’actifs sous gestion entrants promis pour investir en Afrique, l’application mobile de daba devrait enfin être disponible au public cette semaine. La société déploiera l’application auprès d’un premier groupe de 200 utilisateurs et accordera progressivement l’accès à davantage d’utilisateurs sur une base hebdomadaire.
La vision de daba est de développer une solution unifiée permettant aux investisseurs de tous niveaux de trouver et d’investir dans les meilleures opportunités que les marchés africains ont à offrir dans plusieurs classes d’actifs et pays.
Aujourd’hui, les utilisateurs pourront trouver des opportunités d’investissement, investir leur capital, gérer et suivre leurs investissements ainsi qu’accéder à des informations quotidiennes pertinentes sur les investissements. De plus, les utilisateurs pourront dialoguer avec d’autres investisseurs sur la plateforme pour échanger des stratégies d’investissement. Pour les utilisateurs qui souhaitent une expérience d’investissement améliorée, ils pourront souscrire à divers plans d’abonnement qui offrent des fonctionnalités d’investissement et d’intelligence avancées.
“Nous avons réimaginé complètement ce que signifie investir en Afrique”, déclare le cofondateur et PDG – Boum. « Notre premier produit d’investissement est un investissement en capital-risque dans des entreprises technologiques privées africaines à forte croissance. Le capital-risque africain est à un point d’inflexion et il y a beaucoup de capitaux volontaires qui restent inactifs et qui ne peuvent pas accéder à la classe d’actifs de capital-risque en raison des barrières élevées à l’entrée et des lacunes infrastructurelles du système. Daba est en train de changer cela pour toujours ».
“Nous avons vraiment simplifié le processus d’investissement dans les startups en le rendant à la fois accessible et compréhensible” – déclare Anthony Miclet – co-fondateur et chef de produit de daba.
Daba pense que la révolution de l’investissement en Afrique a commencé à se dérouler sous les yeux du monde, alors que davantage de capitaux institutionnels affluent dans la région et que les individus sont de plus en plus désireux de participer à cette opportunité en plein essor. L’entreprise positionne sa solution comme le conduit pour faciliter et accélérer cette tendance en ouvrant l’accès à ce marché.
“Pour nous, ce n’est que la pointe des opportunités que nous cherchons à débloquer. Il y a encore beaucoup de travail à faire et des choses passionnantes seront bientôt annoncées. Nous sommes heureux de publier enfin l’application, de la mettre entre les mains des gens et de leur faire découvrir notre produit », déclare Boum.
Pour en savoir plus sur daba et rejoindre la liste d’attente, visitez : dabafinance.com et consultez l’annonce de lancement de l’application ici. L’équipe peut être jointe à [email protected].
daba, a fintech building the all in one investment infrastructure for Africa is glad to announce that its long awaited public beta is going live on the Apple app store and Google play store on Friday July 15th 2022.
After amassing an oversubscribed waitlist that attracted over 5M USD of inbound AUM pledged for investing in Africa, daba’s mobile application is finally set to be available to the public this week. The company will roll out the application to an inaugural cohort of 200 users and will gradually grant access to more users on a weekly basis.
Daba’s vision is to build a unified solution allowing investors of all levels to find and invest in the best opportunities the African capital markets have to offer across multiple asset classes and countries.
Today, users will be able to find investment opportunities, invest their capital, manage and track their investments over time as well as access relevant daily investment news. To add, users will be able to engage with other investors on the platform to discuss investment strategies and share or copy their trades. For users who want an enhanced investment experience, they will be able to subscribe to various investment membership subscription plans that offer premium investment and intelligence features.
“We are completely re-imagining what it means to invest in Africa”, says co-founder and CEO – Boum. “Our first investment product is equity venture investing in high growth private African technology companies. African venture capital is at an inflection point and there is a lot of willing capital sitting idle on the sideline that cannot access the VC asset class because of the high barriers to entry and infrastructural deficiencies in the system. Daba is changing that forever”.
“We’ve really simplified the startup investing process making it both accessible and understandable” – says Anthony Miclet – co-founder and daba’s Head of Product.
Daba believes the African investing revolution has begun to unfold in front of the world’s eyes, as more institutional capital flows into the region and retail capital grows eager to participate in this burgeoning 1.5T capital market opportunity. The company positions its solution as the conduit to facilitate and accelerate this trend by opening up access to this market.
“For us, this is only the tip of the assets we are looking to unlock. There is lots more work ahead and exciting things soon to be announced. We are happy to finally release the application, place it in people’s hands and have them experience our product” – says Boum.
To learn more about daba and join the waitlist, visit: dabafinance.com and check out the app launch announcement here. The team can be reached at [email protected].
Today, a lot of buying and selling is done over social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
In emerging markets, this brand of e-commerce (called social commerce) has grown over the years.
Facebook and Instagram are used for online shopping more than e-commerce marketplaces by Africans, per a 2019 GeoPoll survey, and social commerce accounts for the majority of e-commerce activity on the continent, according to GSMA and UNECA. Beyond just shopping on social media, buying decisions are also influenced by online social communities.
An underlying reason for this growth is that these channels don’t require much digital expertise and are easily accessible for less tech-savvy vendors in Africa.
Small-to-medium formal businesses also set up stores on social platforms to promote and sell to all sorts of buyers, where they already spend several hours per day.
Image from Later.com
By the numbers
3.6 billion: The number of people that use social networking sites globally
34%: The share of Africa’s population using the internet as of 2018.
233 million: Total Facebook subscribers in Africa as of December 2020.
18%: Average increase in the number of online shoppers in Africa between 2014 to 2018, against 12% globally
92%: SMEs in Kenya that used social commerce as of June 2020.
87%: E-commerce shoppers that strongly agreed that social media influenced their purchase decisions in a 2018 report.
The opportunity: Social commerce does a great job blending content sharing, messaging, and selling into one, helping businesses shorten the sales cycle. But most of the processes through which transactions happen—from product discovery and selection to order placements and payments—are crude and inefficient. Put simply, social networks aren’t built to support end-to-end online shopping experiences, meaning users need third-party support for the logistics and payments side of things.
6 Startups to watch and why
Image from daba
Many African startups currently offer solutions that help improve social commerce processes for vendors. Below are a few;
The Nigeria-based startup offers vendors a simple way to create an online store on its platform, add their products, and create a custom link they can share on social media with deals finalized on WhatsApp.
Ivorian SaaS player provides merchants with an omnichannel dashboard through which they can monitor their sales and inventory across all several channels—Afrikrea, social media, and websites—and manages payments and logistics for vendors.
Which brands itself as the “TikTok for e-commerce”, digitizes word-of-mouth marketing, allowing consumers to recommend sellers and get rewarded for it.
Offers the average individual an opportunity to tap into Africa’s e-commerce boom by selling online with zero upfront inventory. Ghanaian sellers on the platform are able to source products and resell items using social commerce tools such as WhatsApp, arrange delivery, and get paid, all through the app.
Enables Nigerian entrepreneurs to leverage social media for curating, promoting, and selling their products. Its social sharing integrations include WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, allowing vendors to earn from their social networks such as friends and family.
Works with “community leaders” to make access to groceries more affordable and more convenient for Kenyans through community group buying. The leaders register with the startup, collate orders from their neighbours and manage door-to-door deliveries all through its platform.
Is a Kenya-based AI-powered, conversational commerce platform that allows small businesses to manage customer interaction and sell products online across various messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Image from the Wfanet.org
The challenge: Limited access to the internet presents potential challenges to the ability of startups in the social commerce space to scale. In addition, selling products via social media platforms alone has its disadvantages, such as when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp experienced lengthy outages last October.
The future: Social commerce continues to blur the lines between social interaction and online selling while accounting for an increasing share of e-commerce sales. We expect to see more growth in the collective social commerce sub-sector in emerging markets as more people come online. More so, Africans are more likely to patronize people they interact with on social media. As a result, social commerce on the continent has a very promising future.
About six months ago, daba quietly launched its digital presence on a host of social media platforms in addition to a pre-launch landing page that encouraged signups to its growing waitlist. Via our website and social media accounts, we informed curious community members of what daba’s platform would do while they awaited the launch of our beta app. With a simple mission, to democratize investing in Africa, daba provides a barrier-free way for investors (of every level) to access curated investment strategies and build wealth by investing in the African private and public capital markets.
But there’s much more to the story.
Understanding the who, what, and why behind daba; paints a bigger picture for those who are hesitant to begin their African investment journey. Below, co-founders Boum III Jr and Anthony Miclet answer some of the most frequently asked questions in anticipation for the app’s awaited upcoming beta launch.
Q: SO TELL US WHY, WHAT’S THE REASON FOR daba?
After spending several months researching and having experienced how cumbersome it is to invest in promising African companies; we came to the conclusion that there’s a steep chasm between the capital needs of growing companies and investors looking to invest in promising opportunities in Africa. daba’s platform addresses this gap and provides a platform to safely drive capital in and out of the African capital markets, allowing opportunity and demand for capital to seamlessly intersect.
Simply put, our app makes it easy for African companies to access capital while providing investors an easy and convenient way to access these companies.
Q: WHY IS NOW THE BEST TIME TO INVEST IN AFRICA?
According to the World Economic Forum, more than half of the world’s fastest-growing economies are right on the African continent. Like Anthnoy mentioned, there’s a significant disparity in the status of stock exchanges and investment avenues in Africa. Many of these challenges are a result of poor governance, minimal investor confidence, and narrow pathways providing continuity between each of them. Simply put this presents a massive opportunity in Africa and because there are minimal channels for interested parties to get involved and change the tide… taking advantage now is very promising. I wouldn’t want to miss out!
Q: WAIT… WHAT DOES daba MEAN
daba is an acronym that stands for Democratizing Access to Business in Africa. Not to mention, “daba” is also a tool used for agriculture In Ivory Coast that closely resembles a shovel; daba is the people’s tool for investing in Africa.
Q: WHEN WILL THE BETA APP LAUNCH? IS THERE A COST TO JOIN?
Though our launch is contingent upon securing the necessary licenses, we anticipate releasing our invite only beta in late April / early May. We will slowly allow early members (those who joined the waitlist several months ago) to test out the beta app. From there on, we will collect feedback, iterate and then give access to all registered users by July.
The application is completely free to download and use, however, we offer a premium subscription for investors who are looking to access investment reports as well as our pre-built managed investment portfolios which support their wealth journey by aligning with their investment goals and values.
Q: I’VE SEEN YOUR DAILY INVESTOR UPDATES, WHAT’S THAT ABOUT?
At daba, we’re committed to becoming your preferred tool for investing in Africa and understand that in order to do so with confidence, you’ll need the insights to make informed investment decisions. Daily Investor Updates are a streamlined and digestible way for daba users to stay up-to-date with a high-level summary of the latest tech actions and our analyst’s takeaways on how the news impacts the African capital markets.
Q: IS THERE A SUGGESTED DOLLAR AMOUNT TO GET STARTED WITH INVESTING?
That’s a great question! While this is certainly relative to every financial situation, you can get started with $50 — or even much less! The most important thing (and the way to build larger investment portfolios) is to just get started! Building wealth is a journey, not a race. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see results.
Q: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DEMOCRATIZE INVESTING IN AFRICA?
We want to make it easy for anyone to invest in African Public and Private markets via one simple, transparent and safe investment platform. We believe that Africa represents a massive opportunity that is underinvested and we want everyone to access it.
Q: WILL daba SERVE COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENT?
Maybe one day, but it’s just far too early to say. Right now, we are focused on the African continent, which already covers 54 countries. We believe that if we are able to facilitate investments in Africa, we will be able to do so across other emerging markets as well. We are building financial rails that are applicable everywhere. The sky is truly the limit but we take it one step at a time.
Q. WHAT ARE daba’s FOUNDERS MOST EXCITED ABOUT?
Anthony: I’m really looking forward to breaking down both the perceived and actual barriers that exist for investing in Africa. With daba, it’s easy for anyone, regardless of their investment savvy or geographic location, to access the African financial markets. That’s going to help a lot of people continue to build or even kick off their wealth journey, it’s really exciting.
Boum: I’m excited about unlocking the true economic potential Africa represents. Africa is literally the last frontier of investing and 1 out of 4 people on Earth will be from Africa in the next 2 decades, yet the amount of capital being invested in the region is nowhere near what it should or could be. Once investment into the opportunities on the African continent, the world will realize how much potential remains untapped. Building daba ,contributing to ushering the future of investing in Africa and creating a reality where investing in Africa is as easy as it is today in the US and other developed markets, is something I am very excited about and particularly proud of.
To learn more about daba and how to join our growing global community of investors, visit dabafinance.com or connect with us on LinkedIn!
The African continent is rapidly becoming one of the newest — and most promising — destinations for emerging markets investors.
In fact, for upwards of 20 years, the World Economic Forum has identified that more than half of the world’s fastest-growing economies are on the continent. With extensive natural resources, a young and increasingly educated workforce, relative political stability, and undeniable prospects for economic growth, there’s no question of vitality for investors.
Image from IMCS
Through and through, Africa is among the handful of emerging markets globally; the phrase coined by economists in the early 1980s defines investing in developing countries. Like any investment decision, there are inherent risks but here are five reasons our leadership believes Africa is worth a shot:
1. Potential for Growth 📈
Presently, Africa accounts for around 17% of the world’s population, but only 3% of global GDP. This data not only attests to a historical failure to tap into the continent’s developmental potential but also highlights the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead. Should Africa continue to sustain and accelerate its structural reforms, many believe the continent can emulate China’s rapid rise over the last 50 years.
2. Innovation 💡
Industrial revolutions, whether driven by steam, assembly lines or computers, have historically been slow to sweep the African continent. However, the era of Industry 4.0, clean energy, artificial intelligence, and digital innovation promises to be different. Unlike previous waves of industrial change, having a stake in the digital age doesn’t require extensive expertise or massive capital investment. Instead, innovators and entrepreneurs in emerging markets are in a position to tap into flows of talent and digital knowledge and convert them into goods, services, and business models.
Image from Enterprise
3. Lower Valuations 📉
In the last decade, African equities have not been a success story — at least not when compared to similar regions. The MSCI US and the MSCI Developed World index rose 232% and 159% respectively in the last ten years, while the MSCI South Africa and MSCI EFM Africa ex. South Africa only gained 33% and 23%. With that in mind, some question whether Africa’s equities have lagged because of problems on the continent. Short answer: not really. However, it does present a unique opportunity for investors — more equity stake in the companies you choose to invest in.
4. Diversification 📊
Diversification is the practice of spreading out investments to reduce exposure to risks associated with just one type of asset. The practice is intended to reduce the volatility of your investment portfolio over time. If you’ve been patiently waiting on an opportunity to invest in international stocks, Africa presents itself as a worthy option.
Image from Kubera
5. Rising Middle Class 💼
According to the World Economic Forum, by 2030, more than 40% of Africans will belong to the middle or upper classes; as a result, there will be an increased demand for goods and services. Not to mention, household consumption is expected to reach $2.5 trillion (yes, trillion), more than double that of 2015 at $1.1 trillion. An increase in capital can only mean more opportunities for economic growth and development throughout the continent leading to more and more inventors flocking to Africa.
That’s where daba comes in. Our simplified platform provides what we call “everyday investors” with investment analysis and wealth-building resources to make their investment decisions in the African private and public capital markets sustainable.
Image from daba
To learn more about daba and how to join our growing global community of investors, visit dabafinance.com or connect with us on LinkedIn!
