Quona Capital Closes $332 million fintech-focused fund for emerging markets

Quona Capital, a venture capital firm focused on financial inclusion in emerging markets, has closed its third fintech fund at $332 million.

• Quona Capital was founded in 2015 by Monica Brand Engel, Jonathan Whittle and Ganesh Rengaswamy. The firm is focused on backing fintech companies based in Latin America, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
• Brand Engel, who leads Quona’s investments in Africa and the Middle East regions, said the fund’s investors include a majority of existing investors from sectors like global asset managers, insurance companies, investment and commercial banks, university endowments, foundations, family offices and development finance institutions. It also includes 20 new investors, the firm said.
• The commitments for Fund III exceed the $250 million target Quona was initially gunning for and brings the firm’s aggregate committed capital to over $745 million.
• Quona Capital funds have made more than 65 investments and will make 25 to 30 new and follow-on investments from the third fund. Notable exits from its first fund were IndiaMart, which went public in 2019, and Coins.ph, which was also acquired in 2019 by Gojek.
• Some of the first six investments from the new funding have gone into companies including Egyptian financial super app Khazna, MoHash, a decentralized finance protocol, Pillow, which wants to make cryptocurrency saving and investing easier, and nocnoc, helping global sellers connect with marketplaces in Latin America.