The number of women founders and co-founders in Africa is on the rise, according to research by Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A), an online community for startups

In 2019 that number was still just at 18%, or fewer than one in five—but it’s still better than in supposedly more “advanced” startup hubs like Silicon Valley.

Fortunately, African hubs don’t have to replicate the flaws of more mature markets. Several female African leaders in the tech and finance space are taking matters into their own hands.

Fatoumata Ba, a 2019 Quartz Africa Innovator, has spent the last decade as an entrepreneur and executive building digital businesses and understands the challenges Africans face in raising startup funding on the continent. That’s why she, the former founding head of Jumia in Abidjan, just launched the Janngo Capital Startup Fund.

Janngo Capital has just raised €15 million ($16.5 million) from the European Investment Bank as a key step in her team’s target of closing a €60 million fund in the first quarter of 2020. It has previously raised undisclosed amounts from family offices among other sources. But it isn’t waiting till the fund closes and has already quietly invested in three early-stage ventures.

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