When a person embarks on the adventure, not without risk, of entrepreneurship, the sources of investment are always a concern! For the development of HUB2 in Africa, the Reunionese startup Connekt4 has raised €250,000 in funding.
Connekt4, a startup from Reunion Island, signed an agreement with Mauritian investor Compass on Friday 23 February to raise €250,000 in funding. This fund will initially be used to deploy and market HUB2, the brand of this fintech startup, in the French-speaking part of Africa such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Togo, among others.
The Reunionese startup seems to have all the chances on its side since in the same week, it obtained the BPI (Public Investment Bank) FrenchTech grant. A grant that amounts to €29,000, which will certainly help the startup to continue the excellent work that its team is doing relentlessly.
Finding investors who believe in the project of a startup is not an easy task. If the investment fund Compass, under the direction of Fabrice Boullé, finances HUB2 for its development on the African continent, it is because it sees in this startup all the potential for a great success. “We are confident that Ashley has the qualities required to carry out this ambitious project. We will provide him with our strategic support and we will open our African network to increase his chances of success,” said Fabrice Boullé at the signing of the contract between the two parties, in the premises of SeyesLab (the startup accelerator of the Seyes Agency) in Sainte-Marie. SeyesLab is also a shareholder of Connekt4.
With an investment and a grant in hand, ConnekT4’s President and shareholder Seyes can be proud of their startup’s progress and of the entire team that worked on the project. “We are proud to have been selected by BPI to benefit from the French Tech grant which supports projects with high growth and disruption potential. It is a recognition of the know-how accumulated by the Connekt4 and Seyes teams over the last 12 months on cutting-edge technology topics” said Rémi Voluer, Seyes Associate Director.
Connekt4, the vision of a young Réunionese entrepreneur
Behind Connekt4 is the vision of Ashley Gaüzère, a young entrepreneur from Reunion Island. He knows the sector he is working in inside out, having studied engineering at the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications. His studies led him to a very bright professional future, during which he became a consultant at Cap Gemini, then Director of the Internet Business Unit of Orange in Côte d’Ivoire, one of the world’s largest operators.
Thanks to his rich experience, it is now perfectly natural to see Ashley Gaüzère at the head of a startup that evolves in the development of technical solutions for access to the infrastructure of mobile operators in Africa.
Connekt4 will therefore continue its journey and see the future in a better light thanks to the investment and this grant from BPI French Tech that will help HUB2 to deploy in Africa. It must be said that in Africa, the Internet is a concern to be taken into account as well as e-commerce.
“I quickly realized that the possibilities were limited for Internet users. They could browse, but not buy online as they did not have a payment card. In the same way that e-merchants could not develop their business. There was a lack of a solution that would allow e-commerce to develop in Africa. We had to create a solution adapted to this problem, which would allow mobile payment on e-commerce sites. That’s why we launched Hub2” explains Ashley Gaüzère.
It is a real boon for this startup to offer an adequate e-commerce solution on the African continent. A solution that will allow this startup to make available to the entire population the infrastructure of telecom operators. HUB2 has the ambition to establish itself on the entire African continent by 2020.
An ambition that has become a reality thanks to the financing obtained by this startup, to whom we can only wish a great success!
