Gloo.ng founder, Olumide Olusanya, yesterday announced via his Twitter account that his company raised an undisclosed Angel Investment last month.
Last month, we raised some $X00,000s of new investment at very low single digit cap table dilution, giving us 12/12s+ of runway…./1
— D.O (@davidicdoc) January 17, 2017
Beyond that, Olumide appears to have some bias against investment from Venture Capitalists (VCs), that one couldn’t help but wonder why. When we inquired from the entrepreneur, it turns out it was actually about knocking out the assumption that there are actually ‘VCable’ ventures in Nigeria.
“Based on my understanding of VC maths, it has become clear that if you are not going to be able to build a business guaranteed of $100,000,000 million within the space of 5 years, you shouldn’t be a VC,” Olumide argues.
On choice of funding paths to take at this point in the evolution of the Nigerian tech ecosystem i.e. whether to VC or not to VC…./1
— D.O (@davidicdoc) January 17, 2017
I'd strongly advise Nigerian founders against taking VC in your 1st 4 yrs if by 3rd yr you ain't growing @250-300% per annum W/OUT VC…./2
— D.O (@davidicdoc) January 17, 2017
Speaking on the path of investment for tech entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Olumide feels that angel investment is a more viable alternative. However, he also hints that angel networks in Nigeria aren’t any better than their institutional counterparts.
While he has raised a cumulative sum of $1.6 million from angel investment since launching four years ago, it is clear in his argument that they were not from any investor within the country.
https://twitter.com/docolumide/status/821315194529910784
Describing how easy it was sealing the recent investment, Olumide claims that he did it over a 90-minute phone conversation and 4 emails sent across 2 weeks. Interestingly, he claims not to have met 3 of the angel investors in the last 3 years.
Happened over 2 x 45 minutes phone calls and 4 emails across 2 weeks–and <BOOM> credit alert received…./2
— D.O (@davidicdoc) January 17, 2017
The new investment will be used in taking the company to its next milestone, with a projected net revenue of ₦400 million. To achieve this, they will be looking to launch 4 new products and services into the market. One of them is a butchery platform that will help prepare and deliver fresh meat produce to customer’s doorstep.
On the average, raising funds from VCs isn’t always a straight path; especially with the big valuations and their near-impossible demands (terms and conditions). But successful rounds often come in huge sums, and that is a fact that simply can’t be ignored.
“I’ve seen a lot of people take money from VCs but, I doubt they know what they are signing into because VCs don’t tell you these little things when you are collecting the money,” Olumide clarifies, “the idea for me is to let people be aware that there is a different path to getting to where they’ve envisioned as entrepreneurs outside of the VCs that we’ve been brainwashed with.”
“So ideally, it is best to keep one’s options open, scale the business, get the product market fit, and then get enough insight into one’s market to understand the potentials that are therein,” he concludes.
Photo Credit: investmentzen Flickr via Compfight cc
