WEST AFRICA – Senegalese food-tech startup Les Ateliers de Corinne (LADC), has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from WIC Capital, as Nigerian group-buying platform Pricepally undertakes pre-seed funding round.
Launched in 2014 by Corinne Erambert, LADC specializes in digital culinary marketing, organization of cooking workshops and cake design.
The investment will enable the Dakar based company to scale up by financing the acquisition of professional equipment, the recruitment of a professional team and the installation into new premises.
“I am delighted with this partnership which reinforces the image and development potential of the brand.
“WIC Capital is an investor whose added value goes far beyond the capital it provides. This strong support will allow us to increase our production capacity to meet the demand but also to accelerate our growth,” Ms. Corinne said.
WIC Capital is an investment fund that exclusively targets women-led companies in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
“We believe that Les Ateliers de Corinne has the potential to become a key food brand in Senegal and West Africa.”
Évelyne Dioh SIMPA – Executive Director of WIC Capital
The fund made the investment through a mix of equity and quasi-equity, with the participation of local individual investors and the Délégation Générale à l’Entreprenariat Rapide des Femmes et des Jeunes (DER).
This recent participation is WIC Capital’s third investment, taking the total amount syndicated into Women Led SMEs in the region to close to XOF 500 million CFAF (US$ 900k).
“We are pleased to support the development of a small business led by a young and dynamic entrepreneur, who has developed several activities in parallel.
“We believe that Les Ateliers de Corinne has the potential to become a key food brand in Senegal and West Africa,” Évelyne Dioh SIMPA, Executive Director of the fund, said.
Nigerian digital food cooperative Pricepally raises funds
Meanwhile, Nigerian digital food cooperative Pricepally has raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding round to help it build on its strong early growth.
In 2020, Pricepally raised an undisclosed amount of investment from a German-based investment firm GreenTec Capital.
Having seen significant growth over the past 12 months in which sales have tripled, it has now raised a pre-seed funding round.
The investment comes from Asia-based VC Samurai Incubate and early-stage VC fund Launch Africa Ventures.
“We are psyched to be backed by the VCs and angels that took part in this round. We have a lot of work ahead and this gives us the pump to execute on our plans,” said Lawoyin, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pricepally.
Launched in 2019 by Luther Lawoyin, Jumai Abalaka, Deepak Bansal and Monsunmola Adefemi, Pricepally is a group-buying platform that aggregates consumer food demand and matches it with supplies directly from farmers and wholesalers.
The food is sourced directly from farmers and wholesalers with the aim to cut out middlemen and save consumers money by leveraging technology to aggregate demand via a sharing model.
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