VENCO has raised $670,000 in a pre-seed round to help provide digital solutions for African residential and commercial properties. Venco offers solutions to improve the living experience in African residential and commercial communities.
The startup raised the fund in an oversubscribed pre-seed fundraising round to scale its all-in-one technology platform that oversees collections, service charge administration, utilities vending, guest access, and other services related to multi-unit property developments throughout Africa.
Furthermore, the new fund will help VENCO expand into other cities and nations on the continent, as well as build out its credit delivery infrastructure for rent and household expenditures, starting with Nigeria and Kenya.
Because more and more people are moving to cities in Africa, multi-property projects are now the most popular way to build homes and businesses.
In addition to Voltron Capital, Decimal Point Ventures, Fast Forward Fund, Tayo Oviosu (CEO of Paga), Odun Eweniyi (COO of Piggy Vest), Oo Nwoye, Design Chinniah, Dakar Network Angels, and Viktoria Business Angel Network, the pre-seed fundraising round was headed by Zrosk Investment Management.
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Venco’s Impact on Africa
Eighty percent of Nigeria’s 2.5 million households with incomes of $1,000 or more per month live in neighbourhoods with more than one property. Rent takes up 25% of their income, while the remaining 50% goes toward other household expenses like consumables, utilities, internet data, cable TV, and other services.
The possibility of household expenditures is about $22.5 billion in Nigeria and $100 billion in all of Africa.
However, because these community projects manage many parts of daily life, mostly manually and using paper, several inefficiencies negatively influence residents’ experiences and property owners’ revenues.
VENCO automates the collection and balancing of all dues and payments in communities.
This means that property owners get more money and have better margins. was co-founded by Chude Osiegbu (CEO), Reagan Mbitiru (CTO), and Uzochukwu Alor (COO).
VENCO’s self-service capabilities streamline procedures such as guest control, issue management, emergency management, and utility vending.
Residents now have access to a variety of embedded financial services, including insurance, credit facilitation for rent, service charges, and household expenditures, along with many other advantages, thanks to their ability to create an economic profile based on their financial transactions on the VENCO platform.
Over the past nine months, VENCO has grown by more than 200 percent, and it now operates in six cities and more than 12,000 residential units throughout Nigeria and Kenya. Its platform has completed transactions worth more than $10 million since January 2022.
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VENCO’s Finance Solutions
The subscription fees that VENCO now charges for the use of its software solution are the foundation of its business model. Osiegbu clarified, however, that this is not VENCO’s long-term strategy.
“We are looking at monetizing embedded finance for the estates as a whole, as well as for individual households within the estates.”He states that VENCO is already making money off of this solution because the company assisted in funding the purchase of prepaid energy meters for the Tejuosho Market commercial center and the PrimewaterView Gardens residential development.
As part of the embedded finance solution, VENCO is required to serve in the capacities of debt originator, collateral guarantor, and collections agency. The startup analyses data from its platform to decide whether people and real estate developers can repay loans. If possible, it either connects lenders who use VENCO to develop loan opportunities or gives credit. Finally, it directly collects loan payments from its customers.
Samson Esemuede, managing director and chief investment officer of Zrosk Investment Management, commented on the rise: “The team at VENCO is building a platform that allows for the validation of the GDP of the African household. Not only does a platform like VENCO allow for significant improvement in the experience of African residents, facility managers, and property owners, but it could also potentially unlock at scale the sort of financial services the African consumer needs. We view VENCO as both a SaaS and a financial inclusion play with a potential for strong multiplicative impact across the continent.”
