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Who’s Moving To Invest In Africa’s Tech Ecosystem?

Who’s Moving To Invest In Africa’s Tech Ecosystem?

Allard Luchsinger is the director for private equity at the Dutch-based venture fund, Velocity Capital Private Equity. The company specializes in fintech early-stage investments. Luchsinger shared what motivated his organization to invest in two African startups over the last year.

Velocity acquired interests in the Kenyan mobile commerce and payment technology provider, Cellulant, and the Cape Town-based fintech startup, Yoco.

The man inhabits a hands-on role at Velocity, where he’s tasked with supporting all eight of the firm’s portfolio companies–a gig that includes serving as an active board member for the US online brokerage firm, TradeKing, Hong Kong-based online broker 8Securities and the Dutch banking software provider, Five Degrees.

Following a successful run as a start-up founder in his own right, Luchsinger joined Velocity Capital in 2011. This after helping to grow the client base of Zecco, a Silicon Valley-based online brokerage firm he co-founded, to more than 250 000 accounts. Things came full circle in 2012, when Zecco merged with a major rival, TradeKing, to form the industry’s sixth largest online broker, TradeKing Group.

While unpacking some of the challenges that he’s encountered in seeking out investible African prospects to fund, Luchsinger indicated that many of the founding teams he’s interacted with have lacked experience in engaging with potential foreign investors, and unfortunately, that’s led to some promising deals falling through.

Nevertheless, he maintains that the financial services opportunities presented in African markets regularly trump those he’s seen in other parts of the developing world where, as he puts it, great software solutions typically struggle to pin down genuine problems to solve.

From Business Report. Story by Andile Masuku.

Allard Luchsinger is the director for private equity at the Dutch-based venture fund, Velocity Capital Private Equity. The company specializes in fintech early-stage investments. Luchsinger shared what motivated his organization to invest in two African startups over the last year.

Velocity acquired interests in the Kenyan mobile commerce and payment technology provider, Cellulant, and the Cape Town-based fintech startup, Yoco.

The man inhabits a hands-on role at Velocity, where he’s tasked with supporting all eight of the firm’s portfolio companies–a gig that includes serving as an active board member for the US online brokerage firm, TradeKing, Hong Kong-based online broker 8Securities and the Dutch banking software provider, Five Degrees.

Following a successful run as a start-up founder in his own right, Luchsinger joined Velocity Capital in 2011. This after helping to grow the client base of Zecco, a Silicon Valley-based online brokerage firm he co-founded, to more than 250 000 accounts. Things came full circle in 2012, when Zecco merged with a major rival, TradeKing, to form the industry’s sixth largest online broker, TradeKing Group.

While unpacking some of the challenges that he’s encountered in seeking out investible African prospects to fund, Luchsinger indicated that many of the founding teams he’s interacted with have lacked experience in engaging with potential foreign investors, and unfortunately, that’s led to some promising deals falling through.

Nevertheless, he maintains that the financial services opportunities presented in African markets regularly trump those he’s seen in other parts of the developing world where, as he puts it, great software solutions typically struggle to pin down genuine problems to solve.

Read more at Buisiness Report.