Ovamba, a Graduate of the Johannesburg Founder Institute, is the first peer-to-business lending platform in francophone Africa, and also one of the first market lending platforms to offer investment opportunities to individuals and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the majority of Africa's small and medium sized businesses (~80%), there are limited or no access to credit for many entrepreneurs. Business owners often wait weeks, even months for a credit decision from their bank - often missing out on potential business due to long delays. According to Marvin Cole, the CEO and co-founder of Ovamba:
Peer based lending and financing is not new to the [African] continent, in fact it was the original and is often the primary vehicle of business investment for many African small to medium sized enterprises. Ovamba's technology driven solution for improving and managing the access to capital will help Africa fully realize its full growth potential.
Ovamba hopes to alter the norm and offer reliable capital to help entrepreneurs build their businesses and contribute to their local economies. Ovamba can offer better rates than those offered by the banks. The startup also offers investors access to a transparent, secure platform where they can invest in high quality, short term loans made to well-vetted, small and medium sized African businesses that could potentially outperform other investment opportunities.
Ovamba was created to address two issues: solve the problem of restricted access to affordable credit for the small and medium enterprise sector of Africa; and connect the diaspora to their home countries by offering with safe, viable investment opportunities with good returns. They decided that the best way to address these two issues was to allow natural market forces to prevail and give to creditworthy businesses. According to Viola Llewellyn, president and co-founder of Ovamba:
We are very much modeled after industry leaders such as LendingClub and Prosper. We are different from them in that we are focused on the Africa Market and our management team is comprised of Africans and African experts. Our other main differentiator, is that we understand the real capital needs of African entrepreneurs.
Ovamba is lucky to have such experienced figures leading the company. Prior to starting Ovamba, Marvin Cole's previous roles included serving as Senior Associate at McKinsey & Company, Lead Investor at Praxis, and Senior Adviser & Principal at Praxis dba Strategic Solutions, while Viola Llewellyn served as Consultant, International Business Development at Alpha Value Asset Management, LLLP; Consultant, Business Development Manager at Visage Mobile; and Business Manager & Assisting Advisor to the CEO at The Peninsula Group, LLC.
In just a few years since launching, the company has made much progress and has gained considerable attention around the world. The company was recently selected among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum’s “technology pioneers”, and will be participating in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions held in Tianjin, China on September 18-20.
Click here for more information on Ovamba.
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