Tastemakers has raised $1 million for its business that caters for the African travel experience. The seed round was led by Precursor Ventures. This is the second seed fund raised by the company following the $980k raised by October 2018 also led by Precursor Ventures joined by Metis Investments, Pipeline Angels, CRE Venture Capital and Christopher Isaacs. This brings total raised to $1.98 million to date.
Tastemakers Africa is an experiences platform that connects travellers with artists, chefs and creative entrepreneurs and allows you to see Africa through a modern lens. CEO Cherae Robinson founded this startup as a service matching travelers with local African tours that go beyond the best-known options.
According to CEO and founder Cherae Robinson, Tastemakers will use the investment to grow the number of experiences offered from 200 to 10,000 and build out machine learning capabilities to better match suppliers, experiences and clients.
Currently in Accra, Cape Town, Dakar, and Johannesburg and quickly expanding worldwide, Tastemakers is building community, fueling passions, and creating sustainable change in a way that values both the visitor and the person who calls Africa home.
Tastemakers generates its revenues by taking a 15-20% commission while the curators keep the rest.
According to the managing partner of Precursor Ventures, Charles Hudson on the investment in Tastemakers, “I just had a sense that Africa was having a moment, and whether it’s Black Panther or more startups that have a foot in Africa, that there were more people interested in going to Africa.”
“And it’s not like going to New York City…You have providers that are hard to find and hard to book..that are not super well-marketed. If you can become an aggregator and curator of those, you could effectively become the largest source of lead generation,” he added.
Update: Tastemakers confirm that the amount raised recently is $1million, not $1.4million
