UNCAP // Application Deadline extended to 15th October

Are you an early-stage founder looking to grow to the next stage but are facing business challenges around fundraising including being too small for venture capital firms, being too risky for banks as you may lack collateral & too big for microfinance institutions

Uncap is a funding and growth platform looking to support over 100 entrepreneurs by the end of 2021 through a revenue-based financing model.

UNCAP has since extended the application for early-stage businesses seeking funding of between 10,000-50,000 USD  to 15th October 2021.

Funding is one of the main barriers to equal opportunity. Access to funding is not only unequally distributed but also highly biased in regard to gender, educational background, location and personal relations.

The economic unattractiveness and limitations to the scale of small ticket size further hamper the access to funding. This strips whole regions of the catalytic effect entrepreneurship can have on innovation, socio-economic development, and job creation.

UNCAP launched the Innovative Funding & Growth Platform in August 2021 to give local early-stage founders access to unbiased & remote capital.

The businesses should be registered limited companies operating in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Nigeria 

Businesses should also be operational for more than 12 months and up to 4 years. They should have an existing product or service in the market and generated consistent revenues over a period of at least 12 months from an established customer base. 

They should also have a business model that can scale over time, i.e., grow nationally, or regionally.

About Uncap

Uncap is a funding platform seeking to revolutionize access to early-stage funding in Africa. Their main mission is to make early-stage funding accessible to every good entrepreneur in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Early-stage entrepreneurs are usually considered too risky for bank financing and their funding needs are too large for microfinance and too small for venture capital investors. 

This led Uncap to develop a new way of funding using a fully remote, data-driven, and highly streamlined process as well as an innovative investment model. They will be furnishing existing businesses in need of capital between 10,000 and 50,000 USD. 

Uncap invests through a revenue-based revenue-sharing model. This means that the model is designed to address the needs of early-stage businesses and stipulates that Uncap buys a share in the entrepreneur’s business, which is then re-purchased by the entrepreneur at a pre-agreed price over time, as a percentage of their revenues. 

Post investment, every entrepreneur gets access to a personalized dashboard. This dashboard delivers valuable data insights into key financial and non-financial KPIs and access to resources and training programs from local capacity-building partners to support the founders on their journey. 

“We strongly believe in the founders we invest in and want them to be in the driver seat of their business. That means we give them room to grow at their own speed and trust them to make the right decisions. We only hold a minority stake, don’t take any board seats, and generally don’t get involved if not needed” Franziska Reh, Uncap CEO. in an earlier press statement.

Uncap believes that good entrepreneurs run good businesses, and especially in early-stage businesses the profile of the founder has the biggest impact on its success. Instead of using pitch decks or business plans, lengthy meetings, or investment committees, Uncap chose to rethink how funding decisions are being made.

Their application process mainly focuses on quantifiably assessing the founder’s entrepreneurial potential and their knowledge of their business.  

Since launching in 2019, Uncap has invested in 27 companies to test and refine its approach. This funding round aims to test Uncap’s ability to scale its investments to more than 100 companies in one batch. 

The company aims high to revolutionize access to funding by reaching 50,000 entrepreneurs by 2030, equaling 1 billion USD in investments deployed and 1 million jobs created. To view the eligibility criteria and apply, register at www.unconventional.capital.

Apply for an investment: https://bit.ly/2ZpWsQ5 .To learn more about Uncap offering, check out our webinar series: https://bit.ly/3AAOy43