Echelon Capital has announced plans to inject $1 million in funding Nigerian tech startups, beginning February 2021.
The firm which invests pre-seed funds in exceptional African startup founders with capital-efficient businesses that leverage on technology to scale globally also announced that it has plans to invest millions of dollars into startups in Africa over the next ten years.
In a statement made available on its website, Echelon Capital founder, Sunday Olorunsheyi, said: “One thing that gives my team and I joy is that founders who are prepared, built capacity and have positioned their businesses properly will need to worry less about accessing funding.”
Commenting on the future of startups in Nigeria, Olorunsheyi, who is an international business leader with experience spanning over 20 years in different sectors of the economy, said “decentralised investments will take over as individuals leverage startup funding platforms to make direct investments. He also noted that there will huge demand for crowdfunding platforms adding that more people will leverage them to invest in infrastructures that could help SMEs scale globally.”
He stated that the firm looks for startups with a good management team, industry knowledge, innovative products, capital efficiency and profits.
When asked how startup founders can access the fund, he said “One thing that gives my team and I joy is that founders who are prepared, built capacity, and have rightly positioned their business properly will need to worry less about accessing funding “
He added that the future of startup investing in Nigeria will be decentralised investment, which means that individual will invest through startup funding platforms for direct investment.
Echelon Capital is sector-agnostic and looks out for both tech and non-tech startups.
