Accion Venture Lab is an investment initiative that provides startups with seed capital and support. The company has unveiled $23 million fund for a brand new inclusive fintech startup fund. The company which is a subsidiary of Accion will be investing in fintech startups who leverage technology to boost the reach, quality, and affordability of financial services for the under-served.
The Investment initiative was launched in 2012 with $10 million capital. The company is adding extra $23 million to make its initial capital pool $33 million. The Venture Lab is leveraged by people and SMEs to acquire funds. Accion Venture Lab secured the new funds from different participants like Ford Foundation, Visa Inc. and Proparco.
According to Tahira Dosani, Accion Venture Lab Managing Director, the new fund will be used to invest in startups that meet their requirements across the world. She noted that they do not have specific regional investment quotas. However, they plan to allocate about 25 to 30 percent of the funds to Africa.
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They also plan to retain their focus on Latin-America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the US investment borders where the need and opportunity are readily available and required.
In her words, “Our goal is to be the first institutional investor in the companies we invest in. That’s where we see the biggest capital gap and it’s where we build capability and expertise.”
Accion’s new fund will maintain its past practice of a $500,000 investment range. The Lab plans to immediately commence the global sourcing of startups via investment leads. This will be the first time the company will be pulling off a third-party investment capital.
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