Venture capital funds are starting to make bigger bets on African startups

May 4, 2020
Africa

Ressource from Quartz Africa, written by  Oluwatosin Adeshokan

Click here to read the full article: https://qz.com/africa/1593745/venture-capital-is-making-bigger-bets-on-african-startups/

Funding has long been a challenge for African startups but the tide has started to turn in the last year as the sector heats up and both investors and entrepreneurs start to see some of their long term efforts come to fruition.

In the recent past the biggest issue startups from Lagos to Nairobi or Cape Town and Johannesburg would complain about was the lack of venture funding and the lack of options when it came to seeking funding. They’d look on forlornly as startups in admittedly much bigger markets like Silicon Valley or New York literally raised tens of millions of dollars in a Series A round.

This week, Africinvest, a Tunis-based private equity firm partnered with Cathay Innovation—a subsidiary of Paris-based private equity firm Cathay Capital to launch a new pan-Africa focused tech venture fund with a target raise of $168 million.

AfricInvest partnership with Cathay Innovation is looking to capitalize on presence of both companies and their networks in Africa and Europe to provide mentorship and partnerships that will lead to geographical expansion with the aim of building leaders in the funded sectors.

The fund is focused primarily on Series A to C-stage investments in African technology companies and will be looking towards the creation of new digital infrastructures and services to speed innovation in the continent.

The fund is looking to increase human capital in the continent by creating high-tech jobs could make its first investments as early as summer 2019.