Startup ecosystem enabler Ayaki has announced its first equity investment in Zimbabwe.
If you have never come across the organisation, Akayi has been bringing together startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs to share knowledge and experiences to help further the local business scene. They also ran the BizBuilder, which was a free 6-week incubator program for young startups.
The shift to funding is a surprising one only because it came this quickly. Akayi is just under a year old and I for one expected it to come along a little further down the road.
Although, with funding being a massive talking point at the Founder’s Meetups, it seems that the team at Akayi took matters into their own hands.
The recipient of Akayi’s first investment is a startup called Ona Natural Oils which specializes in personal care and beauty products. The startup was founded by Nigel Ruwona and Obey Gunda in 2017 and through its product line wants to tackle self-esteem and anxiety issues that surround black skin and pre-existing beauty standards
“This investment is the first of many we look to make to fund high-potential ventures in the Zimbabwe ecosystem. Ona Brands is made up of a knowledgeable and highly skilled team working on products that are used daily by people in the country and on the continent. It is important that local investors start to participate in the ecosystem and capacitate driven and promising founders. It is the only way that we will attract more much-needed resources into Zimbabwe.”
Chido Dzinotyiwei, co-founder of Akayi
According to Akayi’s press release, the funds will be used to help Ona Natural Oils improve the quality and quantity of its products on the market.
Unfortunately, the amount invested and the details of the term sheet have not yet been made public.
At any rate, it is good to see that there are young Zimbabweans investing in other young Zimbabweans.
Also read
Azanza: interns bootstrapping a health startup & the US$50K funding – we reported on Azanza Health, a local health startup that was selected by the Bill and Melinda Gates-backed Investing in Innovation (i3) Africa program. We got in touch with the team at Azanza and were able to have a conversation with the CEO, Dr Tinotenda Micheal Simemeza who shared more about the health startup
