MeQasa.com, one of Ghana’s leading online real estate classifieds businesses, has secured a $500,000 investment from Frontier Digital Ventures, a global VC firm headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Frontier Digital Ventures’ portfolio includes companies in five key frontier regions including Central America, Middle East & North Africa, East Africa, West Africa and South Asia. MeQasa plans to use the investment from Frontier Digital Ventures to expand meQasa’s sales and marketing outreach, as well as accelerate the development of its innovative mobile and web service experiences.
MeQasa was founded in 2013 by Ghanaian entrepreneurs, Kelvin Nyame, Rashad Seini and Kofi Amuasi, who are all graduates of the tech entrepreneurship training program at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) based in Accra, Ghana. Upon graduation, the MeQasa team received seed investment funding and support from MEST which was founded by Norwegian software entrepreneur Jorn Lyseggen.
Seeking housing to rent or purchase in Accra and many other major cities across Africa has traditionally proven a difficult task, given the limited options of organized, online tools and platforms available to aid with these types of searches. MeQasa has elevated the real estate industry in Ghana by providing a free service that helps brokers, landlords and other real estate industry professionals to conduct business efficiently online, while simplifying the search experience for prospective tenants and buyers.
Apart from its destination website, meQasa produces the “Design Accra” symposium event series, which focuses on real estate and development design trends in Accra. MeQasa is also developing one of Africa’s first central real estate property databases in partnership with the Ghana Real Estate Professionals Association (GREPA).
Africa’s tech scene is fast growing and gaining the attention of deep pocket VCs from the west. In May, the Omidyar network invested $1.2 million in Nigerian hotel booking site Hotels.ng, while EchoVC invested $500,000 in Nigerian digital printing startup Printivo in October, among other deals.
Frontier Digital Ventures CEO, Shaun Di Gregrio, said in an Press release that his company is delighted to be partnering with the meQasa team.
“The business has a strong platform in place and is quickly progressing in what we see as a truly dynamic market in West Africa. The combination of our own online classifieds experience across emerging markets, along with meQasa’s passion and commitment, makes for a powerful combination and opportunity to build an industry leading business in Ghana and beyond,” said Di Gregrio.
Source: Forbes