Entrepreneurial talent is equally distributed around Africa, and among men and women, but financial opportunity is not, as such investors should operate with intentionality and ambitious targets to counteract this inequity, says Fatoumata Bâ, founder and managing partner of Janngo Capital.
Speaking on Disrupt Podcast, Bâ says a certain level of gender awareness is warranted when making investment decisions in order to counteract the inequality in the amount of funding which goes to female founders. It is not about forced targets, but about having an intentional awareness of the benefits of having a diverse investment portfolio, she says.
Launched in 2018, Janngo Capital – which is one of Africa’s only female-founded and female-led VC firms – reached the first close of its targeted EUR60 million (US$) fund last year, and has committed 50 per cent of its funds to backing female entrepreneurs.
“We’re proud today to be the continent’s largest gender equal tech fund, because we’ve committed 50 per cent of our proceeds to startups founded, co-founded, or benefitting women,” she says.
“It’s interesting because you could argue that, maybe we’ll be deploying 50 per cent, and it will be the smaller cheques, or it will be just to try to give a chance to women. But it’s the opposite. Today the most successful startups in our portfolio are female-led. So to me it shows that when you have first an intentionality, and then you have some targets, from which you track your progress beyond just a pledge or commitment, those are driving forces to do your best […] Because in Africa talent is really equally distributed. That’s a fact. But what is missing is access to opportunities and in my experience what happens if you extend that access to opportunity, is that female entrepreneurs do just as well if not better than the male entrepreneurs.”
Similarly, entrepreneurs are talented and active in all regions of Africa, but funding does not reflect this with the majority of funding opportunities going to Anglophone Africa, Bâ says. As such, Janngo has also made target commitments to support French-speaking founders.
“We have committed 50 per cent of our proceeds to Francophone Africa because we do believe that there is no reason why we don’t see as many tech enabled companies delivering impact in any region in Africa.”
The Diversity dividend: Female fund managers in Africa series – produced by Disrupt Africa, commissioned by Boost Africa Technical Assistance Facility and financed by the European Union under EDF Thematic Blending and Cotonou Investment Facility – looks at VC firms championing gender diversity in Africa. Through a series of case studies and podcasts, we meet some of Africa’s leading female VC fund managers.
To learn more about Bâ and Janngo Capital, download the case study here; or listen to the full podcast episode here.
