Village Capital facility backs Built, Sayetech and Grow For Me in Ghana

The Africa Ecosystem Catalysts Facility has invested a combined $500,000 in three Ghanaian startups, Africa Private Equity News reported. Built, Sayetech and Grow For Me each received funding, though the amount for each was not disclosed. The facility is a $4 million pilot managed by Village Capital and funded by FMO and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. With these deals, its Ghana investments reach $850,000 across five companies.

The three companies

Built Financial Technologies is a fintech platform that helps small businesses digitise operations through accounting, payroll, invoicing, payments and inventory tools. It has onboarded over 18,000 SMEs, processed more than $1.5 billion in invoices, and grown embedded lending by more than 250% over two years. CEO and co-founder Edward Neequaye leads it.

SAYeTECH makes smart agricultural machinery, including threshers and grain-cleaning equipment, and says its machines process crops up to 40 times faster than manual methods. Grow For Me connects farmers, aggregators, investors and off-takers through input financing, warehousing, aggregation and commodity trading. It has reached over 19,000 farmers and facilitated more than $3.9 million in commodity trade.

What comes next

Built will put a significant share towards SME access to capital, AI and go-to-market work. SAYeTECH plans expansion within the ECOWAS region. The facility plans investments in Nigeria and Tanzania. As Husein Merchant, investment officer at Village Capital, put it: "they’re not waiting for the infrastructure to catch up."

At a glance

• Companies: Built, Sayetech, Grow For Me
• Raised: $500,000 combined
• Investor: Africa Ecosystem Catalysts Facility, managed by Village Capital
• Markets: Ghana; Built also serves Kenya and Nigeria
• Key figure: More than 18,000 SMEs onboarded by Built