Senegalese foodtech startup, Mburu, raises $450k from WIC Capital and WE! Fund
Mburu, a Senegalese food tech startup active in the production and marketing of bread and pastries has raised about 243 million FCFA ($450K) funding from WIC Capital and WE! Fund.
The investment is a mix of capital and quasi-capital and will allow the Senegalese startup to reach maturity in its deployment.
MBURU has developed a whole range of bakery products around the promotion of dry local cereals to replace imported wheat usually with a distribution network based on women’s groups in rural areas.
This integrated vision allows the startup to structure a value chain, ensuring local cereal producers’ income and ensuring income for the mobilized women processors.
This fourth investment by WIC CAPITAL was made with the participation of the General Delegation for the Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth (DER). WIC CAPITAL has, to date, syndicated nearly 750 million FCFA ($1.4m) in African businesses run by women”
Dr. Isseu Diop Sakho, founder of Mburu said “this investment will allow us to pursue our innovations which reside in the digitization of our production and marketing chains and constitute the first step towards our desire to extend over the entire national territory”
Why The Investors Invested
Launched in March 2019 by the Women’s Investment Club (WIC) Senegal, WIC Capital is the first investment fund that exclusively targets women-led businesses in Senegal and Ivory Coast. The Fund brings together local and international institutional and individual investors, who pool their resources to invest in micro and small women-owned enterprises (MSMEs) in Senegal and Ivory Coast. The Fund invests through a mixture of equity and quasi-equity in companies from all sectors, founded by women, owned or managed at least 50% by women, or with a management team predominantly female.
This investment in Mburu is the fourth made by WIC Capital and involved the support of the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth. The contribution by WE! Fund amounts to 120 million FCFA.
The Senegalese food tech startup came second in the Head of State’s Grand Prize for Digital Innovation organized by the Ministry of Telecoms and the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal.