Microtraction: 2018 in Review
Tags: Africa, Startup, Venture Capital, Microtraction, Year In Review

It’s been over 18 months since our official launch in July 2017 and our goal still remains the same — to be the most accessible and preferred source of pre-seed funding for remarkable African technology entrepreneurs.

Microtraction started out as a hypothesis and 2018 afforded us the time to test out our key assumptions. Without a shadow of a doubt, credit goes to our founders — they and their exceptional teams, work tirelessly to keep growing and building their companies that solve important problems. We would also like to thank our team, mentors and advisors, it’s been great working with talented and remarkable groups of people.

2018 By The Numbers

We saw over 500 companies via inbound (applications) and outbound (outreach, referrals, partnerships etc.).

companies via inbound (applications) and outbound (outreach, referrals, partnerships etc.). We invested in 8 companies bringing the total number of founders backed to 18.

bringing the total number of founders backed to Our portfolio comprises of 4 fintech startups, 1 healthtech, 1 Saas, 1 crypto, and 1 edtech.

fintech startups, healthtech, Saas, crypto, and edtech. 38% of our portfolio companies have a female member on the founding team while 17% of the founders we have funded are female.

of our portfolio companies have a female member on the founding team while of the founders we have funded are female. 5 of our portfolio companies got into Y Combinator. 2 in YC Summer 18 and 3 in YC Winter 19 batches.

of our portfolio companies got into Y Combinator. in YC Summer 18 and in YC Winter 19 batches. 100% of our portfolio companies have raised follow-on funding and have raised in aggregate over $3M within 12 months of us investing.

of our portfolio companies have raised follow-on funding and have raised in aggregate over within 12 months of us investing. Currently, 88% of our companies are worth more than $2M and our companies have a combined valuation of over $28M.

MT Companies

We are proud to have partnered with these 8 companies. They have all made significant progress from the time we invested. We, however, know that there is still a lot of growth ahead of them. If you are an investor or potential partner, please feel free to reach out to us and we will be happy to make introductions to them.

Applications & Outreach

Most applications came from Nigerian teams. However, there were a few from Ghana, Zambia, and Mauritius. Most of the companies that applied to us found us via Google, while a few others were referred from other entities or individuals in the ecosystem. Prominent sector categories from the applications and outreach included marketplaces, consumer, and financial services.

Diversity and Inclusion

Less than 10% of the companies we came across had female founders. We remain committed to understanding and addressing the barriers that prevent more women from starting startups and applying for funding. We are happy to be working alongside exceptional female founders within our portfolio and we want to work with more. There is still a very long way to go. We, however, want to source feedback from the African startup ecosystem on how we can solve this challenge. Please email open@microtraction.com, tweet or DM us your suggestions, we would love to hear from you.

Partnerships

We partnered with the African Capital Alliance Foundation (ACAF) the foundation arm of African Capital Alliance (the Private Equity fund manager overseeing ~$1bn). The foundation is committed to donating up to $100k via leading VCs /Incubators /Accelerators to the most promising tech startups in Nigeria who are creating breakthrough solutions that can positively impact the lives of the Nigerian population.

Looking Into The Future

2018 flew by very fast, and whilst we are incredibly grateful and excited about what we’ve been able to achieve, we are not under any illusions that we are just getting started and there’s still so much to do. Getting into Y Combinator or fundraising from later stage funds isn’t the benchmark for success. Helping our founders build fast-growing companies that tackle and solve real problems across Africa is. Making it easier for high-quality entrepreneurs to start and scale companies is what we deeply care about.

With 2019 now underway, we are more excited with the key objectives of the company and the things we want to achieve by the end of the year.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us thus far.

Let’s #BuildTheFuture together!

With love from the Microtraction team.

Special thanks to Sam Omojewho, for helping with the infographics and everyone that worked on the portfolio/pipeline data analysis.