Kenya’s Raise launches end-to-end fundraising platform for African startups

Kenyan company, Raise, has launched an end-to-end fundraising platform that allows founders and investors to open a private virtual deal room, run fundraising simulations, and issue compliant electronic share and convertible certificates.

Founded in 2018 by Marvin Coleby and Eugene Mutai, Raise launched its alpha in 2019 at the Africa Tech Summit in Kigali and silently launched its private beta to a waitlist of companies in January of this year.

Now public, the beta programme provides startups with fundraising solutions via a digital platform, designed to simplify the fundraising process and make it easier to track and close deals remotely in Africa.

Since January 2020, Raise has transacted a volume of over $20 million and is used by startups and venture capital firms in Kenya and Nigeria.

Notable partners and customers include Helium Health, which recently raised a US$10 million Series A round, and venture capital firms Microtraction and Chrysalis Capital.

“At Raise, we’re founders – and we’re here to support founders. We’re releasing the public beta to support the ecosystem’s transition to the new norm of remote investing. At Raise, our mission is to bring security, transparency and simplicity to the African VC space – and really make the fundraising process easier and simpler for everyone,” said Coleby, Raise’s chief executive officer (CEO).

Nichole Yembra, managing director of Chrysalis Capital, which manages fundraises for startups like Helium Health and Flutterwave, said Raise helps African companies inspire trust with the global tech ecosystem.

“We’ve seen the data about how it takes African startups 400+ days to raise funding and a lot of the delays come in the due diligence process. With Raise, companies can proactively load all the data investors usually want to see, cap tables, formation documents, metrics, etc, which simply inspires more confidence and simplifies the fundraising process,” she said.