The Empress Fund is an Angel Investment Fund established by a syndicate group of high net- worth individuals from across the African continent and diaspora, to invest in the growth of women-owned and women-enabling businesses.
Access to finance for women entrepreneurs on the continent is a major challenge with prohibitive terms and conditions that prevent their growth. The fund was established to provide innovative financing solutions to meet the unique needs of Africa’s Women Entrepreneurs.
The Fund is managed by Africa Trust Group based in Cape Town, South Africa and specializes in innovative financing vehicles from $1000 to $50,000 for women-owned and women-enabling businesses in SADC.
The Empress Fund is an evergreen fund that offers women entrepreneurs innovative financing solutions ranging from $1000 - $20,000 in the agri-processing, energy and climate sectors.
We empower women to help level the playing field and drive progressive change, whilst still delivering outstanding returns for our investors. We hope not only to show that a better way is possible but inspire others to follow.
There is an annual $132 billion funding gap in the Agri-processing, clean energy and climate sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Whilst these sectors are growing exponentially in Africa and provide many opportunities, women are lagging behind in access to opportunities and financing for growth.
- These sectors tend to attract less equity-based venture capital funding at the early-stages due to higher perceived risks related to changing weather patterns and variable scalability.
- Although women are the backbone of sectors such as agriculture, they typically lack collateral for traditional lending
There exists a global $3trillion gap in financing for businesses that do not meet venture capital requirements nor have enough assets to meet collateral requirements of traditional lending.
Our unique capabilities are highlighted in a 3-pronged approach
The fund will utilise instruments such as revenue-financing vehicles, non-asset backed lending, drawdown accounts and other fit for purpose and context instruments
The vehicles will be invested for short-medium term purposes (3 - 36months) to boost early stage growth and position the businesses for follow-on equity investment from ATG's Equity Funds and/other investors - thus providing investors with a sure exit.
Leaders set the tone, pace and culture of an organisation. Therefore, ensuring that the entrepreneur is developing both their personal leadership capacity and business skills is cardinal to creating a growing enterprise that can scale and remain relevant in dynamic market environments.
Our online platform Startupcircles.ai helps entrepreneurs to build commercially viable businesses and provides them guidance and access to a network of like-minded entrepreneurs and investors. The platform makes the startup journey more enjoyable and less lonely for entrepreneurs.
Visit our online Startup School here: StartupCircles.ai
Empress Fund provides research and advisory on innovating financing vehicles and gender-lens investing.
Our Team
Investments
- $3m targeted fund size using blended finance 200 transactions with average deal size of $50k Innovative financing vehicles such as revenue finance models
- Geographic focus: primarily SADC (Southern Africa Democratic community), with an allocation to the other Tripartite free trade areas - EAC and COMESA
- Our returns: We pride ourselves in providing our investors with above industry average returns (fixed return of 15%pa to investors)
- Investment terms: Investments are for a minimum of 12 months. This period allows for the investment to be deployed and utilised by entrepreneurs for a healthy return for our investors. Investors have the option to withdraw the invested amount and interest every 12 months
INVESTMENTS TO DATE
- 7 investments to date
- $100k+ Invested in 7 Sectors
- 2 exits from Empress Fund and 1 company moving from pre-seed to seed fund.
Investment distribution by sector
Investors
The Empress Fund was established as an Angel Syndicate Fund by African Angel Investors. It is currently open for fundraising and investment from individual and instititutional investors. Current institutional investors include the Shell Foundation UK.