Kenyan Tech Marketplace, Pariti, Secures $2.85m Seed Fund from US Investors
Kenyan community-led marketplace building the digital infrastructure for an emerging market startup, Pariti, has raised $2.85m in seed funding led by United States’ Harlem Capital.
Better Ventures, Accelerated Ventures, Diverse Angels, AVG Basecamp, and New General Market Partners also participated in the round.
Pariti was founded by Yacob Berhane and Wossen Ayele in 2019 to connect emerging market startups and entrepreneurs with resources, skills, and finance.
Pariti’s Recommendation Engine allows entrepreneurs to submit their businesses for assessment and comments from Pariti’s experts. The engine then recommends customized next steps for the founders in areas where the company requires assistance.
Pariti also encourages individuals to monetize their skills, talents, and abilities by recommendations, as well as assist VCs and angel investors in closing transactions.
Yacob Berhane speaking said that the higher the recommendation engine grades a pitch, the higher the likelihood of raising capital.
“So we’ve looked at the companies that have been able to go on and raise money after submitting the Pariti pitch review, and companies that score over 70 on a Pariti score have a 50% likelihood of connecting successfully with investors.
“But companies that score above 78 have shown correlation to having 8x likelihood of raising capital, which is pretty dramatic,” said Yacob.
Yacob Berhane also spoke on the importance of prioritizing the elevation of African startups through acceleration and access to global investors.
“If Pariti builds this community of founders, investors, and freelancers that have the right mindset to elevate this ecosystem, nobody has to be a gatekeeper. You’re fostering a certain mentality of ‘we will get further together.’ It’s bigger than any one of us.
“The pandemic was a Black Swan event because we saw a major jump inactivity on our platform. Remote staffing and remote investing accelerated tremendously. This was a bet we made a while back but obviously could not anticipate what was coming.
“And after taking nearly ten years to get Africa’s first unicorn, we had six announced in roughly six months. This led to a significant increase of interest from local and international investors for African startups,” said Yacob.
Pariti’s first funding will enable it to develop SaaS processes and improve its talent marketplace to develop a custom solution for investors wishing to invest in and support founders, employ talent, grow into other areas, and build larger communities.