PNGME Subsaharan Africa Series – Octopus Ventures is a new venture capital fund set up by the Raptor Group and EchoVC. The new fund seeks to invest in emerging and developing businesses in Africa and Asia, particularly in the areas of e-commerce and healthcare. It is the first investment vehicle of its kind in Subsaharan Africa. Moreover, it is one of the very few venture capital funds to focus exclusively on sub-Saharan Africa. Investing in these areas has become increasingly more attractive in recent years.
Octopus Ventures
Pngme is a financial data infrastructure firm based in San Francisco. It provides a machine learning-as-a-service platform for financial institutions. This includes a credit and lending API. In addition, it offers developer tools. The company’s current partners include Credpal, Kuda, Renmoney, Simplefi, and more.
Pngme is also a leading fintech player in Africa. The company focuses on understanding financial behaviour and delivering actionable financial data. According to Pngme, its solutions allow financial institutions to lower defaults and enhance credit reports. They are designed for banks in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as digital financial platforms. During its seed stage, Pngme raised $3 million.
Pngme recently received $15 million in Series A funding. This round was led by Octopus Ventures, alongside Lateral Capital and Raptor Group. Other investors included Intersect VC’s Kyle Ellicott, Hayden Simmons from RallyCap, and Future Africa.
EchoVC
Pngme is a San Francisco-based fintech start up. It provides a machine learning-as-a-service platform. The company has been able to leverage its infrastructure to process billions of data points from its clients, including banks, credit bureaus, and credit card companies. Using that data, the company is able to track and verify customers’ identities, monitor their balances, and alert them of any transactions they may have missed.
Pngme recently completed its Series A round, with investment from Octopus Ventures, EchoVC, and Unshackled Ventures. While the company has a hefty amount of funding, the team still has plans to grow its engineering, sales, and marketing teams. This includes a new chief technology officer (CTO) and chief strategy officer (CSO) in the near future.
Raptor Group
It is no secret that Lagos has become a financial hub for the region’s burgeoning techie set. In recent years, the city has been the center of the fintech universe, and with its plethora of VC firms, it is no wonder that the city is a magnet for startups and VCs looking for a leg up. Indeed, there are a number of high-profile accelerator programs operating in the region, including Y Combinator, Techstars and Silicon Valley Bank, among others. Not to be left out, the city is also a great hub for foreign visitors looking to rub elbows with the locals.
Two Small Fish Ventures
Pngme is a fintech start-up based in San Francisco. It offers a machine learning as a service (MLaaS) platform to help banks, insurers, and credit bureaus crunch data to improve decision making. They also have a data science team in the works. The company has received a number of accolades for its offerings, including a mention in Fast Company’s list of the most innovative companies in the tech industry. With the new found funding, Pngme can expand its offerings and reskill their MLaaS staff. While their initial clients include banks and insurance providers, the company is looking to branch out into other verticals. For example, it is looking to offer an Insights Library product that offers an end-to-end solution for collecting, analyzing, and presenting large sets of financial data from multiple third-party sources.
Investors
Pngme is a San Francisco-based fintech startup that is a provider of machine learning-as-a-service. The company’s offering is geared towards banks in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is also targeting credit bureaus and fintech companies.
With its Series A round, Pngme raised $15 million. This brings the startup’s total investment to $18.5 million. It has secured investors such as Raptor Group, Two Small Fish Ventures, Future Africa and Aruwa Capital Management. Other investors include individual angels like Hayden Simmons of RallyCap and Dan Khan of Intersect VC.
Pngme’s data science platform is designed to improve lending and credit risk management processes. It offers a set of APIs for financial institutions to build out their own custom fields. In addition, the firm provides a lending platform. To date, Pngme has processed billions of data points from financial institutions. Customers have shown a reduction in loan defaults of approximately 21%.
