Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia
Herconomy, Africa’s first women-focused digital platform has announced that it raised a pre-seed round of $600,000 for the empowerment of women in Nigeria.
In a statement, the Founder and CEO of the Herconomy, Mrs. Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti stated that when the life of a woman is positively impacted, value is created not just for that woman but for the community at large.
Durosinmi-Etti said: “This year, we unveiled the Herconomy Cooperative Multipurpose Society, which was described as a first step on the community’s mission to owning a female-focused bank here in Nigeria.
“To fund the expansion of Herconomy, the community embarked on its capital raising exercise. Very recently too, through the AGS Savings Challenge, over 500 women were able to save $100,000 cumulatively in 6 months.”
She continued that Herconomy, formerly AGS Tribe, has repositioned itself as a financial technology (Fintech) service provider to democratise economic opportunities for women and even the financial landscape.
“We decided to rebrand this year to Herconomy so that the essence of what we do is easily communicated. 70% of the funding we received came from our community while the rest was from Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors. Due to the minimum floor of $20,000 investment, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) was created to onboard members with less than $20,000, “Durosinmi-Etti disclosed
The Herconomy CEO concluded that such funds will be channeled towards hiring an in-house tech team, improving on their product, increasing their marketing efforts and expanding their operations.
