Investment firm PanAfrican Capital Holdings Limited has approved $1 million to support digital businesses in Africa through The Catalyst initiative.

According to altafrica.com, which reported the news on December 13, the Lagos-based investor targets companies with compelling market opportunities for the project. “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 logistics,” said Toluwalope Oni, the Global Coordinator of The Catalyst.

“The project's target is to inject an initial sum of $1 million 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," the Coordinator added.

Opportunities for technology solutions are expected to explode on the continent in the post-Covid-19 period, according to PanAfrican Capital Holdings. Recent data from the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (Avca) showed that 90% of venture capital deals in Africa from 2014 to 2020 involved tech companies in various sectors.

 Chamberline Moko