Untapped Global raises $10.3m pre-seed round to build a transparent investment platform

By Edlyn Cardoza

Untapped Global announces the launch of its public beta platform, which uses real-time data to provide transparency for investors looking to tap into Africa and emerging markets. Funded by a $10.3 million debt and equity pre-seed round that closed in March, this data-driven investment model—Smart Asset Financing—finances revenue-generating assets for entrepreneurs and SMEs in emerging markets. Using IoT from real-world assets, the model assesses the risk of investments and delivers insights to investors on investment performance to secure lucrative returns.

Untapped Global has financed assets for over 6,000 entrepreneurs across a dozen countries in Africa and Latin America who work across sectors such as clean water, solar, e-mobility, and inclusive FinTech.

The Untapped investment platform is currently accessible to accredited investors to use and see how their investments are performing in real-time. The platform is open for anyone to sign up and will be available for retail investors at the end of 2022. Jim Chu, CEO of Untapped Global, says that the rapid digitisation happening across Africa and other frontier markets makes now the ideal time to explore investing in these economies.

“There’s a $5.2 trillion funding gap for SMEs in emerging markets, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America,” said Chu. “We created Untapped to get capital to entrepreneurs in markets who are often excluded from funding opportunities, while simultaneously ensuring transparency for investors. This is just the beginning of the democratization of investing around the world. Our data has shown that for every $1 invested more than $3 of value is created in local economies.”