Investor Profile: Untapped Global — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Untapped Global funding is built for founders that traditional venture keeps missing: post-revenue, asset-heavy businesses in emerging markets that need growth capital but cannot — or will not — give up equity. Its Smart Asset Financing™ model finances revenue-generating assets, tracks them with IoT in real time, and takes repayment as a share of each asset's revenues. Since 2021 the company has captured over 27 million real-time data points from 55,000+ financed assets, supporting 578,231 entrepreneurs — with every $1 invested catalyzing $3.83 of SME revenue.

The firm was founded in 2021 by CEO Jim Chu, a long-time Africa investor, and is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Cape Town and Nairobi. It raised a $10.3 million debt-and-equity pre-seed round in March 2022. Chu's starting observation: a $5.2 trillion funding gap for SMEs in emerging markets across Africa, Asia and Latin America — and Untapped Global fixes the broken risk assessment behind it with data.

The Untapped Global investment thesis

Untapped Global plays a catalytic role financing tech-enabled companies in emerging markets — not by buying equity, but by financing the productive assets entrepreneurs deploy: e-motorbikes, solar systems, water equipment, fintech infrastructure. The model: finance the assets; track usage and revenue via IoT; pay investors from transparent underlying data; and collect a share of each asset's revenues — the more the entrepreneur makes, the higher the yield. Because underwriting is continuous and data-driven, diligence can take days, not months, and cheques scale with proven unit economics.

Sectors, stages and cheque size

The focus is asset-backed and green-economy businesses: e-mobility, clean energy, clean water, healthcare, and inclusive fintech. Untapped Global's dedicated Southern Africa fund targets post-revenue, pre-Series A businesses — explicitly non-dilutive capital, with repayment automated through integrated payment solutions. Financing typically starts with a pilot cheque of around $50,000; once real unit-economics data validates the business, follow-on cheques scale progressively into the millions. There is no published fund corpus: Untapped Global is a financing platform, not a traditional VC fund.

Notable portfolio

Untapped Global has financed assets across a dozen-plus countries in Africa and Latin America. Named examples include Flexclub — the vehicle-subscription mobility platform operating in Mexico and South Africa — and Qwili, whose co-founder Thandwefika Radebe credits the firm's approach with fitting South Africa's dual developed-and-developing market structure. The Southern Africa fund is female-led and "built for Africans by Africans", with team members including Grace Legodi and Thulaganyo Kodisang.

Programs and perks

Beyond capital, Untapped Global offers portfolio companies business-development support to scale across Africa and globally, plus automated, revenue-linked repayments — no fixed monthly schedules to service during slow periods. For global investors, the platform offers real-time impact and performance data, with returns of up to 10% APR cited for its investment products.

How to apply for funding

Founders can start via untapped-global.com — Southern African businesses through the dedicated /sa fund page. The qualifying profile is specific: a post-revenue business, ideally pre-Series A, with revenue-generating assets that can be tracked — e-mobility fleets, solar deployments, water or health infrastructure. Expect a fast, data-led diligence process: integrate your systems, prove your unit economics on a pilot, and the financing scales with you. Equity stays yours.