Odun Eweniyi & Eloho Omame Have Launched a FirstCheck To Help Fund Women in Tech

Odun Eweniyi and Eloho Omame have launched FirstCheck, a female-led, female-focused, angel fund, and investor community to help women who have ideas for technology startups. The startup was founded to fill the historical gap of discrepancies between male and female entrepreneurs in the tech industry. 

Over the years, women have gained disproportionately less support in the funding stage of their projects, and this is responsible for the fewer number of women that play an active role in today’s tech reality. FirstCheck will be dedicated to providing funding of up to $25,000 to female founders with audacious ideas at the “ridiculously early stage” of their project. In 2021, they will invest in up to 6 women. 

In the last five years, startup capital in Africa has risen 5x, but there remains a scarcity of women in the league of highly-valued, category-defining startups led by African entrepreneurs. In 2017 when African venture funding reached its then all-time high of about $570M, Just $30M went to companies with a female founder. 

They are creating a future where women have an equal hand in leading and shaping Africa’s future through technology & entrepreneurship. “We’ll act as active connectors & collaborators, using our networks and resources to accelerate their efforts. We’ll spend our time, financial and social capital helping them validate their ideas, gain all-important early traction and raise the next stage of capital,” a statement on their medium page says.