Untapped Global has announced the close of a $10.3 million round in form of debt and equity pre-seed. The company said it will use the funds to launch its investment platform, which uses real-time data to provide transparency and insights for global investors looking to tap into Africa and other emerging markets.
According to the company, its data-driven investment model—Smart Asset Financing—finances revenue-generating assets for entrepreneurs and SMEs in emerging markets. The model uses IoT from on-the-ground assets to assess risk of investments and deliver real-time data to investors on investment performance to secure lucrative returns.
Untapped Global Opportunity
Since launch, Untapped Global claims to have financed assets for over 5,000 entrepreneurs across a dozen countries in Africa and Latin America who work across sectors such as clean water, solar, e-mobility, and inclusive fintech.
Jim Chu, CEO and founder of Untapped Global, says that the rapid digitization happening across Africa and other frontier markets makes now the ideal time to explore investing in these economies.
“There’s a $5.2 trillion funding gap for SMEs in emerging markets, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America,” said Chu. “We created Untapped to get capital to entrepreneurs in markets who are often excluded from funding opportunities, while simultaneously ensuring transparency for investors. This is just the beginning of the democratization of investing around the world. Our data has shown that for every $1 invested, more than $3 of value is created in local economies.”
Nigeria based Fintech, Paga Group works with Untapped to make access to POS systems more affordable for SMEs throughout Africa with the goal to empower 120,000 merchants with this technology.
“Our goal at Paga Group is to make it simple for 1 billion people to pay, get paid, and access financial services,” said Paga’s CEO, Tayo Oviosu. “The team at Untapped is aligned with that goal, and our current partnership showcases its objective to ensure that entrepreneurs have the opportunity to scale to their full potential.”
The Untapped investment platform is now accessible to accredited investors to use and see how their investments are performing in real-time. The platform is open for anyone to sign up, and will be available for retail investors at the end of 2022.
Investing with Untapped requires just $300 USD to get started. Investors can earn a passive income of up to 10% APR, while seeing real-time data on the impact and activity of their investments. The company has an annual revenue run rate of $2.5M, with a consistent profitable return on capital. Recently, Untapped was acknowledged by Fast Company as one of 2022’s Most World Changing Ideas.