UACN, one of the leading conglomerate companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group, with participation and operation in foods and beverages, real estate, paints, and logistics sectors in Nigeria, has taken a stake in a woman-led venture capital, Unicorn Growth Capital.
Unicorn Growth Capital is a venture capital that invests in early-stage fintech-enabled companies. The company touts its niche for leveraging emerging technologies and providing critical infrastructure and embedded finance across industries with a special focus on African startups.
According to UACN’s unaudited financial statements for the year ended 2021, it revealed that during the cause of the financial year, the conglomerate made a N113.1 million investment into the VC firm that is operating out of New York City, America.
What you should know
- Unicorn Growth Capital was created in 2020 and is run by Barbara Iyayi, the CEO and Founding partner at the firm. She has over 16 years of global experience in Financial Services spanning venture capital, private equity, investment banking and technology.
- She’s also a board member of the Web Foundation, an international non-profit focused on digital equality, founded by Sir Tim Bernes-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.
- The venture capital has participated in funding rounds of many startups involved in technology such as fintech, blockchain and Artificial intelligence (AI). Notable companies the firm has invested in includes Appzone, Indicina, Verto, Tap, ThankUCash, Fonbnk, Credrails, Churpy.
- The venture capital’s recent participation is a $10 million Series A funding round for Verto. Verto is a global B2B payments platform that allows small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers. Unicorn Growth Capital did not lead the round.
- Other members of the VC include Maria Pienaar, who functions as the operating partner of the firm and Duncan Muchangi, who functions as a Principal at the firm.
- Unicorn Growth Capital is not the only investment UACN made during the cause of the year as its financials reveal that they also made investments into a fintech startup, Kandua. UACN invested a total of N108.8 million into the company in 2021.
- Kandua is a South African based fintech that created what they tout to be South Africa’s largest online home service marketplace, where the platform connects home service providers to prospective customers.
UACN’s unaudited statement reveals a stellar growth in its revenue by 24.27% from N81.4 billion to N101.1 billion. However, the firm’s profit for the period took a nosedive by 16.14% from approximately N3.9 billion to currently stand at N3.3 billion. The decline in profit is majorly attributable to a 188.48% increase in finance cost and a share of loss from associates during the period. UACN currently trades N10.05 with a market capitalization of N30.7 billion.
