Outlierz Ventures, an African venture capital fund based in Morocco, continued to actively invest in high-growth startups across Africa, with three new investments made in 2020, bringing the total number of investments to eight companies.
Since the start of its activity in January 2019, the fund has made eight investments in four priority African markets: Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya, as well as in European startups led by African entrepreneurs from the diaspora.
Among these technology companies, four of them (50%) are in the retail and logistics sector: WaystoCap (Morocco), Sokowatch (Kenya), MaxAB (Egypt), and TousFacteurs (France), three in that of the FinTech Bamboo (Nigeria) Youverify (Nigeria) and Asoko Insights (SSA) and in the health sector, Healthlane (Nigeria).
The health crisis has created new opportunities for the fund, particularly in FinTech and HealTech. Thus, since the start of 2020, Outlierz Ventures has made three new investments:
- YouVerify (Nigeria), a startup that automates and digitalizes the KYC-check (Know-Your-Customer) process, in particular to allow the opening of remote bank accounts.
- Bamboo (Nigeria), a startup that democratizes investment and allows Nigerians to invest instantly on the American stock market from a mobile application connected to their Nigerian bank account.
- Healthlane (Cameroon and Nigeria), a startup that offers a premium healthcare service in public hospitals and offers remote services such as online appointment scheduling, telemedicine, or access to laboratory test results on the mobile application.
Most of the fund’s portfolio companies have been positively impacted by the health crisis because they meet basic needs, and have seen their growth accelerate.
In terms of valuation, some of them have already exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars in a few years and provide the portfolio with remarkable profitability vis-à-vis the international standards of the venture capital industry.
A venture capital fund dedicated to tech companies transforming key sectors of African economies
Outlierz Ventures was launched by a team of Moroccan and African entrepreneurs and investment professionals, united around values and a common passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and Africa, with the ambition of taking part in the emergence of the continent’s next success stories.
Its Managing Partner, Kenza Lahlou, was also selected this year to join the very closed circle of “Kauffman Fellows”, dedicated to managers of venture capital funds around the world. Outlierz Ventures is therefore one of the rare African funds to be part of this global network.
“ We are delighted to announce our new equity investments in three African technology companies and are very proud of the exceptional results of our portfolio. The African market represents a huge opportunity to build innovative technology platforms that transform traditional business models in all key sectors of the economy.
“The health crisis we are currently experiencing is catalyzing this digital transformation. This is demonstrated by the recent acquisition of Paystack, a Nigerian fintech in payments, by the American leader, Stripe, valued at $ 34B, for an amount of more than $ 200 million last October. A major event in the African ecosystem which will lead to others, I am convinced ”, says Kenza Lahlou, co-founder and Managing Partner of Outlierz Ventures.
