Nigeria’s Risevest mulls East Africa entry through Hisa deal
Nigerian fintech company Risevest is rolling a plan to acquire Hisa, a Nairobi-based fintech startup that offers investors a platform to purchase and trade in US stocks. If the deal goes through, the Nigerian wealth management entity will get a chance to grow its footprints in Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy.
According to TechCabal, Risevest CEO and Founder Eke Urum, said the company is always scouting for “potential alignments” when asked about the acquisition of Hisa.
Following a $250,000 pre-seed financing deal settled in 2022 with a number of angel investors, Hisa was estimated to be valued at about $5 million. Hisa, which was set up in 2020 by Eric Asuma is a US stock trading platform that is licensed by the Capital Markets Authority of Kenya as well as the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
“At Hisa, we are building the infrastructure for borderless investments for Africa to allow everyday Africans to easily invest in both local and global assets including stocks, ETFs, bonds, and alternative investments,” the company notes on its website.
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This is the leverage Risevest seeks to earn by acquiring Hisa as the Nigeria-based company, which enjoys the backing of Ventures Platform and Techstars, spread wings into East Africa.
In the six months to June, startups within the climate tech segment emerged as the top in attracting financing, with a whopping 45 percent of funding ($325M) and surpassing fintech, a sector that has been at the go-to target for venture capital.
According to an update by fintech investment tracker, Africa: The Big Deal, in the six months to June, fintech accounted for 22 percent or $158 million of the funding raised this year so far in Africa.
In 2023, fintech made up more than half of the total funding, that is $852 million out of $1.7 billion, recorded during the comparable half.
