Crowdyvest Holdings, an investment company based in Lagos, has announced that it will begin operating under a new name and will henceforth be known and addressed as EMFATO Holdings, with immediate effect.
The Company said in a statement made available to DigitalTimesNG on Monday that EMFATO Holdings takes pride in building and supporting the brave entrepreneurs building successful businesses out of the opportunities in Africa.
Its portfolio is solving problems around the continent with technology focused on sectors like Agriculture, Finance, and Transportation to impact millions of lives on the continent.
Crowdyvest Holdings was established to build technology solutions that meet the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development goals in different sectors.
DigitalTimesNG recalls that in 2019, Onyeka Akumah, along with his co-founders identified various opportunities in different high-impact industries using technology to create solutions for Nigerians with the potential to scale across Africa.
This led to the establishment of Crowdyvest Holdings (CVH) to invest in such business opportunities and CVH has since launched or invested in 2 portfolio companies including Crowdyvest – a fintech startup focused on financing impact-driven opportunities, and Plentywaka– a trans-tech startup focused on changing the way people get around in Nigeria’s major cities starting with buses.
Both startups joined Farmcrowdy which was the first portfolio company of CVH and formerly led by Kenneth Obiajulu.
In June 2020, reports emerged that Kenneth Obiajulu reached a mutual agreement to leave Farmcrowdy while its founder, Onyeka Akumah, has now returned as Chief Executive Officer to lead Farmcrowdy into the next chapter of its growth.
EMFATO Holdings, formerly Crowdyvest Holdings will now be focused on providing the necessary support for its portfolio businesses while identifying new businesses that will build tech solutions to power collaborative developments within Nigeria, Africa, and the world.
The Company said in a statement made available to DigitalTimesNG Monday morning that this change of name will not affect the affairs of the company as well as its portfolio companies.
Each of the portfolio companies under EMFATO Holdings has applied innovative thinking to impact the lives of individuals across the globe, with the portfolio of businesses now focused on Fintech, Transtech and Agtech including:
Crowdyvest, a leading crowdfunding startup in Nigeria, using a fintech model to connect over 85,000 active users and 7,000 active sponsors, with impact-driven opportunities in partnership with other technology companies.
The startup led by its Co-Founder and Managing Director – Tope Omotolani along with 12 team members, recently launched a new website and mobile app with features such as an e-wallet for sponsors, pooled sponsorship as well as a revamp of the project sponsorship experience.
Plentywaka, the first bus-hailing company in Nigeria that reached 100,000 riders in 6 months of launch. The startup is currently led by its Co-Founder & Managing Director – Ena Johnny and a team of 26.
The startup recently launched a logistics arm and has over 38,000 active users completing an average of 1,400 rides daily after the COVID lockdown.
Farmcrowdy, the first portfolio company from EMFATO Holdings and the agtech startup now led by Onyeka Akumah with a team of 45 focused on using technology to boost the food value chain.
Farmcrowdy has moved away from its original model of Crowdfunding for agriculture to grow into the business of using technology for Agriculture with a farmers’ network of 116,000 individuals across 16 states in Nigeria.
The portfolio company’s services now include Farmcrowdy Structured Finance, Farmcrowdy Aggregation (with 101 centres nationwide), Farmcrowdy Foods (with Bestfoods and Meathub), Farmcrowdy Insurance, Farmcrowdy Marketing Services, and Farmcrowdy Tech & Data.