Ventures Platform, an African venture capital firm, has announced the first close of its $40 million pan-African fund.
Though the amount of the first close was undisclosed, the sizeable amount came from Nigerian- and African-based limited partners (LPs).
Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade is one of these LPs. Others include the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); UAC Nigeria, VFD Group; and global investors such as Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel and Adam Draper.
Founded iin 2016 by Kola Aina, Ventures Platform is a discovery fund that invests early in mission-driven founders that are building capital-efficient platforms that democratise prosperity, plug infrastructural gaps, connect underrepresented communities, solve for non-consumption, and improve livelihoods in Africa – starting with Nigeria.
Since 2016, the VC firm had made 69 investments. Of the firm’s 69 companies, 30% have passed through Y Combinator. Some of its portfolio startups include Mono, Seamless HR, Piggyvest, Paystack, Kudi and Thrive Agric.
Interestingly, it is expanding its investment capabilities outside Nigeria. It has written checks for Kenya’s MarketForce and Tambua Health, Zambia’s Union54 and Egypt’s MoneyHash. It plans to invest more in these regions and Francophone Africa.
Ventures Platform often focused on pre-seed and seed with an average check size of $50,000. However, with this new fund, it can now participate in Series A investments writing checks of $1 million and also making follow-on rounds.
“We’re proud that for this first close, a large part of our capital came from local funding. I gave a TED Talk titled ‘who would own our future unicorns’ and I’m so proud of this because it seems Africans are answering loud and clear that we would own them too. So this was a nice mix of Nigerian corporates, family offices, institutions, as well as global investors”, said Kola Aina.
Aina adds: “We have a pretty robust pipeline of companies that we’ll be looking at across the continent, as well as our portfolio companies that have raised new rounds of financing. We’re looking for interesting companies that fit our thesis and what’s compelling now is that we have a follow on capital to fund them.”
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