Angani Closes Seed Round with Leading East African Investors to Localize Cloud Services

Angani Closes Seed Round with Leading East African Investors to Localize Cloud Services
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2015

Boston, MA and Nairobi, Kenya – Kenya’s Angani Ltd has closed a seed round of funding led by Invested Development with participation from Africa’s Talking, Savannah Fund, and Africa Angels Network.

Angani is the first fully automated public cloud infrastructure company in the region. For the first time, East African companies are able to use a local solution to maintain Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. Its initial focus is on the East African small- and medium-sized enterprise market, as well as the financial services and media industries.

Angani’s founding team, Phares Kariuki, Riyaz Bachani, Brian Muita, and Ripduman Sohan, has already assembled a solid customer base and is poised for high growth in 2015 thanks to this investor cash infusion. Phares Kariuki, CEO of Angani, said, “This funding proves it is possible to build an internationally attractive infrastructure business in Africa. In the coming year we intend to leverage this capital towards our goal of handling Africa’s data by helping enterprise businesses adopt to the cloud as well as providing a platform service for local innovation such as our Digital Media Broadcasting solution. Based on current predictions we intend to be East Africa wide by 2015.”

Angani’s goal is to manage Africa’s data, which is expected to grow exponentially as the population doubles. According to the International Telecommunications Union, only 17% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa are online today, roughly 160 million, but hundreds of millions more will come online in the next 5 years. This growth in demand requires a corresponding growth in local data hosting and processing capabilities and infrastructure. Currently, most Kenyan applications and web content are hosted remotely in the USA and Europe resulting in high access latency, low throughput and increased operational costs. These financial and technical issues limit the online presence of Kenyan businesses. The Internet’s impact on economic development is significant: McKinsey estimates it could account for as much as $300 billion added to the continent’s GDP by 2025. Having localized cloud IT services would bring many East African businesses online and help them realize their growth potential.

According to Miguel Granier, Founder and Managing Director of Invested Development, “Angani is an attractive proposition because it provides direct benefit to the firm’s existing portfolio companies that are operating in the East African region. Globally, it’s a competitive space, but the specific local needs for East African remain underserved, creating a significant opportunity for impact.”

About Angani:
Founded in June 2013, Angani is a Cloud Services company in Nairobi, Kenya that aims to make it easier for individuals and companies to host and manage their data in the cloud. More information on Angani can be found at www.angani.co.

About Invested Development:
Invested Development is an impact investor providing risk capital investments to early stage startups addressing remote connectivity and energy access challenges. Visit www.investeddevelopment.com.

Contact:
Christina Tamer, Marketing and Research Manager at Invested Development
info@investeddevelopment.com