One of the major problems entrepreneurs in Nigeria face is the inability to raise capital to sustain their business before it is profitable. And One Capital may have just cracked the code for business funding challenges in the country.

In this Interview with One Capital’s co-founder and MD, Emmanuel Eze, he explains what inspired the creation of the VC/ Investment firm.

Interview excerpt:

I moved from Calabar to Lagos in 2017. I came to Lagos to start a business.

The memory is funny because I had less than five thousand naira with me, and even had to owe the cabman five hundred naira. Through Facebook, I was able to locate a founding member of my first business.

Kingdom was my primary school friend and always came top of the class. When I reached out to him, we did some catching up. I found out he was a Software developer working in Andela. I told him I had a project at hand, and he told me he would love for us to work together.

I assumed it was going to be smooth sailing from there, but I would learn the hard way.

For the first project, I had the very best; a team of talented people who believed in the project and the vision of the company.
We were the winning team.

But as the cost of production began to rise, we needed to raise capital for operations and the cost of development.
I did not have the means then.

It was a difficult place for me at that time. I couldn’t ask my teammates for money because they were working for their share in equity.
I did not know how to raise capital; I tried but I failed.

Half-way through the project, my team broke up.

I lost my first winning team because I could not afford to keep us together.

The good thing is, from a young age, I learned to go after what I wanted. So, after my first company failed, I decided to raise capital to resuscitate my company.

For three years, I toiled the Business world, working as a mentee, skilled worker, freelancer, and eventually a consultant.

I worked and produced good results and invested the proceeds; In Agriculture, especially.

Since then, I have founded three companies, all bringing in enough profit to ensure cashflow (not capital) to sustain themselves.

This got me thinking: If that could happen to me, how many other people are going through the same challenge?

People with the vision, and a team that already believes in their vision (and are eager to work with them), but without running capital for the operational expenses that come with building a company.

That was when I decided to create One Capital with my co-founder Chukwuemeka Nwankwo. One Capital is a VC/Investment firm that would provide capital to the people who need it, with companies already in motion but facing the problem of raising funds to sustain their business.

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I am sure many other founders can relate to his story, especially SMEs. So if you are looking to raise capital for your business, then head over to their website (www.onecapital.io) and create a business campaign.

For those who haven't seen this