Close Menu
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing & Mental Health
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
Trending
  • New Venture Aims To Help Propel Growth For Start-Ups
  • Building community, one cause at a time
  • How to build a £1 million pension and ISA portfolio
  • 5 Reasons Why Every Office Should Include Flexible Spaces to Work and Their Key Benefits
  • Pension reforms risk higher prices, fewer jobs and slower growth, FSB warns
  • Building Trust in AI Through a Decision-Centric Approach in Manufacturing
  • In Profile: Michael Stausholm, founder and CEO of SproutWorld
  • A beginner’s guide to growth shares (and why they’re so popular right now)
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
You are at:Home»Finance»Crasner Ventures Backs ‘Worker-first’ Social Network Umwuga
Left: Nick Crasner, Centre: Umwuga Logo, Right: Nasi Rwigema

Crasner Ventures Backs ‘Worker-first’ Social Network Umwuga

0
Posted By sme-admin on May 26, 2021 Finance

Crasner Ventures, the early-stage venture capital investor that supports businesses led by female founders and entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, announces its investment in Umwuga Ltd, an emerging markets-focused social network that connects workers and employers. Umwuga is Crasner Ventures’ second portfolio company.

Umwuga is revolutionising the recruitment industry in emerging markets, by enabling workers to connect and communicate on their own terms, showcase their abilities, experience and personality and engage and negotiate directly with prospective employers. The platform opens up employment opportunities to those often excluded by a recruitment industry and social networks designed predominately for white-collar workers. It also helps employers by giving them access, without paying agents, to candidates who have been recommended by people they trust.

Launched in December 2020, the company is led by its founder Nasi Rwigema, a London Business School MBA with a background in private equity, renewable energy and aeronautics. Umwuga means ‘career’ in Kinyarwanda, the language of Nasi’s paternal home country Uganda.

In line with Crasner Ventures’ investment strategy, Umwuga will be supercharged by the venture platform’s pioneering ‘three-layer capital’ model, which provides funds, valuable sector knowledge and lucrative relationships. This three-layer model has been fundamental to the success of Crasner Ventures’ first investment, associate-level legal recruitment business Kissoon Carr, which Crasner Ventures backed in 2016.

Umwuga is ideally positioned to bring its advances in technology, accessibility and efficiency to a jobs market that is expected to rebound with recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and that continues to experience a wave of digital adoption. In targeted territories, both internet access and the use of social media for work and job searching are on the rise at all skill levels, further increasing the need for Umwuga’s service.

Already operating in South Africa, the company plans to expand its offering across Africa, before entering Latin America and South-east Asia, as well.

Nick Crasner, the venture firm’s founder and a pioneer in diversity-orientated venture capital, will employ his unique combination of experience, knowledge and far-reaching network to support Umwuga. Mr. Crasner is also the Chairman of Crasner Capital, an award-winning boutique investment bank he founded in 2014, which advises on mergers and acquisitions in emerging markets, and the Founding Partner of Crasner Consulting, a pre-eminent retained search and management consulting firm that supports international law firms.

“Nasi is an entrepreneur with great ambition. He was looking for more than financial capital to facilitate his plans for Umwuga, which made Crasner Ventures a natural choice,” said Nick Crasner, who at 27 became the youngest person in the UK to own a regulated investment bank. “Umwuga is leading a revolution in the way job seekers find work and the way employers hire the best people. I look forward to being a part of this revolution and to supporting Nasi and his team.”

Katie Faulds, Vice President across the Crasner group of businesses, commented:
“I am excited for Nasi and Umwuga. First-time founders backed by Nick and Crasner Ventures enjoy support, guidance, contacts and access to knowledge, that are otherwise hard to come by. This puts them in a unique position which is proven to yield results. What’s most exciting is that this second investment hits our sweet spot in terms of sector alignment. Our experience in the recruitment industry, coupled with Nick’s knowledge of and contacts in emerging markets, will bring major value as the business grows.”

Nasi Rwigema, CEO of Umwuga, stated:
“I was impressed by Nick’s track record as an entrepreneur – his compellingly ethical approach, his passion for diversity and inclusion and his experience in emerging markets. We share a mission to create economic opportunity through disruptive technologies that more effectively distribute value to the fast-growing middle class in emerging markets.
The phenomenal growth that Nick orchestrated at Kissoon Carr, his first portfolio investment, highlights the impact of his involvement as a value-add investor,” added Mr Rwigema, who first met Nick in 2019 when Nick addressed MBA students and professionals on emerging markets entrepreneurship at the London Business School Africa Summit.”

Crasner Ventures was born out of Nick Crasner’s long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion, and his realisation that profits generated by his two successful businesses could support entrepreneurs often overlooked by traditional sources of funding. The platform orchestrates investment in sectors where Nick’s expertise and experience can prove advantageous, including recruitment, technology, legal and financial services and banking. Funding can take the form of equity or debt, with a capital structure tailored in cooperation with the entrepreneur.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

How to build a £1 million pension and ISA portfolio

Pension reforms risk higher prices, fewer jobs and slower growth, FSB warns

A beginner’s guide to growth shares (and why they’re so popular right now)

Comments are closed.

Follow SME Today on Linkedin and share all the topics you find interesting
Verify your identity for Companies House

The Newsletter

Join our mailing list for the best SME stories, handpicked and delivered direct to your inbox every two weeks!

Sign Up
Events Calendar
    • Marketing
    July 7, 2025

    Bold Business Marketing Specialist Speaks In Swindon This Week

    July 4, 2025

    How Generative AI is Giving SMEs a Marketing Edge

    • Finance
    July 10, 2025

    How to build a £1 million pension and ISA portfolio

    July 10, 2025

    Pension reforms risk higher prices, fewer jobs and slower growth, FSB warns

    • Health & Safety
    July 1, 2025

    Temperatures Soaring: Is Your Workplace Becoming Unsafe?

    January 29, 2025

    UK takeaways guilty of shocking hygiene failures:

    • Events
    July 4, 2025

    £20k grant for female-founded SME up for grabs

    July 2, 2025

    As Seen on BBC Panorama – Brad Burton to Headline The South West Expo in Swindon

    • Community
    July 11, 2025

    Building community, one cause at a time

    June 23, 2025

    Celebrating One Year In Fairford Supporting The Community

    • Food & Drink
    June 23, 2025

    England Cricket Captain, Ben Stokes OBE, takes a stake in Spencer Matthews’ alcohol-free spirits brand, CleanCo

    June 16, 2025

    Hospitality industry risks collapse

    • Books
    April 24, 2025

    Values-Driven Professionalism: A Path to Client Loyalty

    December 2, 2024

    Banish the banshee boss: how to lead without fear – addressing the issue of fear-based management and how NOT to be this manager

    About

    SME Today is published by the same team who deliver The Great British Expos’. We have been organising various corporate events for the last 10 years, with a strong track record of producing well managed and attended business events across the UK.

    Join Our Mailing List

    Receive the latest news and updates from SMEToday.
    Read our Latest Newsletter:


    Sign Up
    X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    Most Recent Posts
    July 11, 2025

    New Venture Aims To Help Propel Growth For Start-Ups

    July 11, 2025

    Building community, one cause at a time

    July 10, 2025

    How to build a £1 million pension and ISA portfolio

    July 10, 2025

    5 Reasons Why Every Office Should Include Flexible Spaces to Work and Their Key Benefits

    July 10, 2025

    Pension reforms risk higher prices, fewer jobs and slower growth, FSB warns

    Categories
    • Books
    • Community & Charity
    • Education and Training
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Features
    • Finance
    • Food and Drink
    • Health & Safety
    • HR & Recruitment
    • In Profile
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • News
    • Property & Development
    • Sponsored Content
    • Technology
    • Transport & Tourism
    • Wellbeing & Mental Health

    Copyright © 2020 SME Today.

    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    Copyright © 2025 SME Today.
    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Privacy
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.