Norway’s Pangea Trust, through its equity crowdfunding platform Connect, seeks to unlock diaspora remittance inflows as a source of funding for early and growth-stage startups in Africa.
Remittances from abroad reached $45 billion in 2021, with Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Zimbabwe leading the list of recipient countries.
And as annual inflows grow, Pangea’s country director and CEO for Kenya Anne Lawi told TechCrunch, that diaspora remittances can be tapped to increase the amount of funding injected into startups. Startups in Africa raised nearly $5 billion in funding last year but the amount remains meager when compared to the rest of the world.