Denis Opudo
Do you think that your startup is in a position to transform the lives of African girls and women? Then here is an opportunity for you to receive funding worth $250,000 from GMC coLABS. This is an early stage investment platform run by Gray Matters Capital, a US-based impact investor. The platform invests revenue share investment worth $250,000 for every company. The platform gave out a statement on 11th June 2018 about its aim of funding six new ventures after every six months.
Moreover, the platform has two upcoming investment cycles giving a chance to social entrepreneurs from Africa to apply. Gray Matters Capital also announced at the beginning of this week that it had invested in Redbird Health Tech, a medical diagnostics startup from Ghana. This is the second time that Gray Matters Capital is investing into African firm after it supported Renewal Energy Distributor (ARED) in 2017. ARED is a solar kiosk micro-franchise based in Rwanda.
According to Jennifer Soltis, the manager of GMC coLABS, the impact investor was influenced by social entrepreneurs from Africa that it meat with who are coming up with an innovative solution to fight the challenges affecting African women. She added that the platform is looking forward to increasing its presence in Africa. Furthermore, it will increase its allocation of their committed $5 million to African social ventures in the coming years.
In the past, GCM coLABS invested in firms that major in civic and health management. Its model of investment is based on strategy, technical support, and seed funding. The impact investor also has a follow-on-investment team to increase the growth and development of shortlisted platform’s qualified companies. Startups must be in line with the platform’s investment criteria for a chance to receive funding from GMC coLABS. Innovation is one of the criteria where startups are supposed to have new ideas that challenge the common ones. The startup should also be scalable. That is it should have a strong growth model and ability to grow revenue collection over the coming five years quickly. It should also have an impact on women. Its concept and business should focus on empowering African girls and women.
