Janngo, the start-up of start-ups

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By: Olivier Rogez Follow

Janngo, a Franco-Ivorian company created by the Senegalese Fatoumata Ba, wants to be the start-up of start-ups. With renowned investors and partners, it is a venture capital company that also develops its own products.

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When Fatoumata Ba created Janngo in 2018, she was not yet thirty years old, but already had long experience in digital entrepreneurship, after having worked in particular at Jumia, leader of e-commerce in Africa. Janngo is an investment fund called "impact", that is to say where the effects of a company on society are as important as its profits.

“  At the start, we have two motivations,  ” explains Fatoumata Ba. “  The first is to create pan-African digital champions who have a sustainable business model and are economically viable. The second is to respond to important societal issues such as access to essential services for the greatest number of Africans, or access to the market for SMEs or even job creation.  "

Investors who respond "present"

Profits and social responsibility, Janngo is in tune with the times and investors are following. "  Janngo capital startup funds has as its main institutional investor the European Investment Bank which has granted an investment of fifteen million euros  ", says Fatoumata Ba. Then to add: “  We also have private players who see Africa as a continent of the future on the technological scene. This is for example the case of the Mulliez family (founders of the mass retail group Auchan, editor's note) who invested in our first vehicle to finance, raise and launch in 2018.  ”

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In recent months, the Covid-19 pandemic has confirmed Fatoumata Ba in his creed. "  We have seen how African start-ups were able, both in terms of service and product, to have an answer in the pandemic  ". "  And it's true that there is a sense of urgency that drives us to invest and also to support them from an operational point of view  ," she adds.

Promote African tech

Operator of the platform launched by the African Union for the purchase of medical equipment, Janngo is also a partner in the foundation of the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. A foundation which spends ten million dollars each year to promote African tech.

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Fatoumata Ba sees it as an opportunity to respond to the problem of female entrepreneurship. “  Being already an investment fund led by a woman and with 67 % female shareholders , this is already the beginning of an answer. The second start of the answer is to manage to invest up to 50% of our funds in women. And having this partnership with Alibaba is very important. And I encourage my female entrepreneurs to apply massively  ”.

Fatoumata Ba intends to participate in the emergence of a powerful and diverse African tech. Logical, in short for a company whose name in French means "  tomorrow  ". 

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