Created to support the startup economy, Pariti will continue its efforts with the help of recent funding totaling $2.85 million.
The seed round was led by diversity-focused fund Harlem Capital, which secured $134 million earlier this year. Better Ventures, Accelerated Ventures, Diverse Angels, AVG Basecamp, and New General Market Partners participated in the round.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Harlem Capital,” said co-founder and CEO Yacob Berhane of Harlem’s participation, according to TechCrunch. “Their focus on data, process and supporting underserved ecosystems aligns perfectly with our mission and makes them an amazing partner for us to build with.”
Pariti Experienced Exponential Growth
Since the Kenya-based company’s inception in 2019, founders Berhane and Wossen Ayele witnessed tremendous growth on the platform reporting an increase of 795 percent. Now Pariti houses 880 companies across 42 countries on its platform.
“The pandemic was a Black Swan event because we saw a major jump in activity on our platform. Remote staffing and remote investing accelerated tremendously. This was a bet we made a while back but obviously could not anticipate what was coming,” Berhane said to TechCrunch.
He continued: “And after taking nearly ten years to get Africa’s first unicorn, we had six announced in roughly six months. This led to a significant increase of interest from local and international investors for African startups.”
What Pariti Offers
Pariti’s leading product is the Recommendation Engine, allowing founders to file their companies for review. Upon completion, companies will receive feedback from specialists on the platform, and the engine will analyze focus points for the companies’ needs and offer personalized steps. In addition, the marketplace will help monetize the skills of talent and steward the search and examination of deals for venture capitalists and angel investors.
The application offers a unique advantage as startups can determine the success of future funding through predictability features.
“So we’ve looked at the companies that have been able to go on and raise money after submitting the Pariti pitch review, and companies that score over 70 on a Pariti score have a 50% likelihood of connecting successfully with investors,” Berhane told TechCrunch. “But companies that score above 78 have shown correlation to having 8x likelihood of raising capital, which is pretty dramatic.”
Offering more incentives to the marketplace, Pariti has cultivated a supportive atmosphere encouraging coaching and mentorship services from VC fellows to founder, founder to founder, expert to founder, and investor to founder, the founders said, according to TechCrunch.
“If Pariti builds this community of founders, investors, and freelancers that have the right mindset to elevate this ecosystem, nobody has to be a gatekeeper. You’re fostering a certain mentality of ‘we will get further together.’ It’s bigger than any one of us,” Berhane stated, according to TechCrunch.
How Pariti Will Use The New Funding
With a promising startup ecosystem in Africa that is reportedly growing by 46 percent annually, Parti proves to be promising for many founders.
To spearhead future startups, Parti plans to use the newly acquired funds to construct SaaS workflows to create multiple forms of raising capital that will include traditional equity and debt to decentralized finance solutions. In addition, the company will hire additional talent, expand its community, conceptualize new solutions to bridge the gap between investors and founders while simultaneously improving their marketplace.
