Cape Town startup Yoco catches eye of Dutch tycoon
A Dutch tycoon who makes only one or two investments a year, has chosen a Cape Town startup as his first project for 2017. Willem Willemstein‚ whose fortune funds private equity firm Velocity Capital‚ says Yoco — which provides card payment terminals for small businesses — can conquer the continent. Velocity director Allard Luchsinger told a media briefing on Wednesday: "We think this is a firm that can become the main financial services company for Africa." Yoco‚ founded by four friends in 2013‚ unveiled funding from Velocity and US-based Quona Capital, which it will use to broaden its national footprint‚ invest in new products and expand into East and West Africa. Quona’s investment came from a fund dedicated to good investments that help the poor. "We are not about profits without purpose. There is no trade-off‚" said co-founder Monica Brand Engel. "There is a massive opportunity to expand access to‚ and the quality of‚ financial services through the digitisation of small and med...
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