Africa-focused venture capital firm Echovc launches Blockchain Fund – Africa Bitcoin News
Africa-focused venture capital (VC) firm, Echovc, has launched a fund that seeks to support blockchain startups on the continent. While global blockchain funding has been on the decline over the past year, Echovc founder Eghosa Omoigui claimed that investment now allows VCs to come in “at lower entry values on average than in previous years.”
Startups offering blockchain-based solutions qualify for funding
Pan-African venture capital firm Echovc recently said it had launched an $8 million fund dedicated to Africa’s blockchain startups. According to the company’s blog post, the fund known as Echovc Chain will be available to startups trying to solve the continent’s challenges using the blockchain.
As noted in a Techcabal report, Echovc’s new fund has been launched at a time when global funding for crypto and blockchain startups has been slowing. The decline in funding has already forced some entrepreneurs to sell their startups.
Echovc targets underserved African countries
Still, despite this plunge in funding, Eghosa Omoigui, the founder and managing partner of Echovc, is quoted in the report as suggesting that now is the ideal time to fund startups because this allows VCs “to invest at lower entry values in average than previous years.” The founder added:
While this has somewhat reduced VC appetite for crypto investment, we continue to be excited about the useful applications of crypto and blockchain in Africa, and believe that crypto entrepreneurs in Africa will continue to build for functionality to solve problems in Africa.
Meanwhile, the Techcabal report also revealed that Echovc has deployed over $41 million in 36 startups globally. In Africa, the VC firm has mainly targeted startups in the so-called underserved markets such as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda. Startups leveraging blockchain to power basic fintech infrastructure are among the firms targeted. Companies with a focus on blockchain functionality and decentralized autonomous organizations also qualify for funding.
According to Echovc, when the funds are fully distributed, the portfolio of companies will have increased to between 12 and 20 companies.
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