By Chukwuma Umeorah
Cascador, an accelerator for mid-stage Nigerian entrepreneurs, has awarded over $3 million debt funding facilities to nine Nigeria startups. The funds are to support the receivers in operations and reposition them for global competitiveness.
The awardees, who received the funding at an elaborate pitch day event held on May 14, 2025 in Lagos, include Crop2Cash, Oriki, N.E.A.T, Adunmi Organics, Sycamore, DoChase, Drive45, 24SEVEN and ExCare.
Speaking at the inaugural pitch event in Lagos on Wednesday, Trish Thomas, CEO of Cascador, said funding beneficiaries are graduates of the Cascador program, which has trained several indigenous companies since 2019.
According to her, the fund will help beneficiaries reach a larger customer base with their operations.
“Our 2025 cohort will be our seventh cohort. The funding is actually only available to alumni of our Cascador program. There are about 60 companies now that have gone through the program. The nine finalists that you see today have been awarded over $3 million debt and equity capital,” she said.
She added, “It’s the first year that we’re doing Pitch Day, and it’s the first year that we’re awarding this capital as an organization.”
She added that the funds are tailored to the needs of each business. “We don’t follow a traditional venture capital model. We have a lot of manufacturing companies, agriculture, farmers, cutting across different sectors. Some of them are looking at scaling up, sustainable growth and what they need is working capital, not equity,” she said.
According to her, about 74 per cent of applicants requested debt, prompting Cascador to work with Sterling Bank to structure favourable loan terms.
“We’re partnering with Sterling Bank. We are creating a system where we’re increasing access. So, we’re taking on the collateral requirements, pulling down the interest rate and also just take down those barriers to lending,” she added.
Loans will come with interest rates around 20 per cent, with features such as moratoriums and tenures of up to five years.
Also speaking, Dave Delucia, Founder, Cascador, said aside from having access to the funds, the beneficiaries will also go through mentorship and capacity building that would help me make the best use of the additional capital.
He said the judges made great contributions in ensuring that each beneficiary got what he or she required to take the business to the next stage of growth.
He added that the winners now have more opportunity to present their ventures to investors who will provide additional value to their growth plans.
Managing Director/ CEO of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, said the partnership is aimed at building businesses that can meet commercial standards of bankability.
“Between that energy and becoming a successful business, there are a lot of ravines and valleys and obstacles. And what capital tries to do usually is to come in to remove some of those obstacles,” Suleiman said.
He noted that the mentorship and support provided by Cascador is “even more important than the capital.”
He explained that the program aims to help companies become strong enough to access commercial debt independently.
“Our commitment is that this model that we have created will be exciting for the development financial institutions in the room, for other banks and other people who are putting capital behind entrepreneurs,” he said.
Other partners for the Cascador 2025 pitching event include, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) which awarded Crop2Cash additional $10,000 grant for the category of most impactful /sustainable business. Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), another partner, also gave a $5,000 grant to N.E.A.T while $10,000 grant was awarded to Joycee Awosika of Oriki for emerging as the Best Pitch.