Investing in African Startups

12 Years. 0 African Investors. That’s my reality. And sadly, I know I’m not the only one. For over a decade, I’ve built solutions specifically for the African market — designed for our challenges, engineered for our infrastructure gaps, built by local talent. And yet… Every dollar I’ve raised has come from Europe or the U.S. Not once — not once — has an African investor backed my work. Not because I didn’t try. I pitched. I knocked. I followed up. One came close. But he wanted half the company upfront. So I kept bootstrapping. Here’s the part no one wants to say out loud: 💸 We say there’s “no capital in Africa.” But we import billions worth of goods and tech every year. 🚫 We say we support innovation. But 60%+ of funding goes to fintech — because it's trendy, not because it’s what the continent needs most. 🌾 Meanwhile, agriculture — our biggest opportunity — gets crumbs. 📉 AI, battery tech, semiconductors, smart vehicles, IoT? Practically invisible. 🛠️ Hardware and deeptech? Good luck. The funding model in Africa is broken. We’ve copied and pasted VC systems from the West, then expect different results. We claim we want to empower innovators — but most founders I know are running on fumes, with nothing but vision and grit. And when a crisis hits? Foreign investors pull out, and we’re left stranded. Again. So here’s my question: 🔁 If we don’t fund and build our own future, who will? Africa doesn’t lack talent. It doesn’t lack ideas. It doesn’t lack ambition. It lacks belief. And the courage to invest in itself. 💬 Founders — have you raised capital from African investors? 🗣️ Investors — what’s stopping you from backing bold ideas on the continent? Let’s have an honest conversation. #AfricaInnovation #InvestInAfrica #VCinAfrica #StartupFunding #TechForAfrica #EdgeComputing #AfricanFounders #EconomicIndependence #HardTruths

2025 African VC Predictions - Time to share what I'm seeing After spending years investing across Africa, here are my predictions for 2025. Would love to hear your thoughts: 1. We're going to see the full impact of the funding winter. Several well-known African startups will shut down or get acquired at massive discounts. Especially watching the fintech space. 2. Pan-African funds are finally specializing. The "spray and pray" era is over. Expect dedicated climate tech, agritech, and infrastructure funds. We can't all just do fintech anymore. 3. International VCs are coming back, but smarter this time. They'll partner with local funds instead of trying to lead. Keep an eye on Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds - they're going to be everywhere in North, West and East Africa. 4. Corporate VC is about to boom. Major African telcos and banks are launching venture arms. They're hunting for B2B startups that can actually help their core business. 5. Forget IPOs - 2025 is all about M&A. Expecting at least three $100M+ acquisitions. Large African corporations are ready to buy, and international players want in. 6. The "Big Four" (Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, SA) won't be the only game in town. Rwanda and Morocco are building serious tech ecosystems. Their governments get it. 7. Infrastructure is the new sexy. Power, logistics, digital infrastructure startups will raise bigger rounds than consumer apps. About time. 8. Local institutional money is finally showing up. Pension funds and insurance companies are getting ready to play. This changes everything for early-stage funding. 9. AI in Africa won't look like AI in Silicon Valley. Watch for companies solving real African problems - agricultural yields, local language processing, healthcare for low-resource settings. 10. We'll see our first $5B African startup. But plot twist: it won't be a fintech. 11. The talent story is changing. Instead of losing our best to Europe and America, they're staying. Remote work and competitive local packages are making it possible to build global careers from Africa. I've never been more bullish on African tech. Yes, 2024 was tough. But 2025 is when we start building real businesses, not just chasing growth. What am I missing? What are you seeing in your market? #AfricanTech #VentureCapital #StartupAfrica #Tech2025

In H2 2023, more foreign investors are investing in African (very early stage) tech-anchored startups at a rate faster than what they did at the same time last year. Here, they invest between $50k to $500k. However, in the range from $500k to $5m, that has slightly dropped while from $10m is extremely challenging. Above $20m is now a miracle. Yet, I do think the market is opening up because the “VC banking crisis” in the US is largely over, and they will be getting back to big deals. In the last few days, we have been getting more calls on due diligence, on our startups, for larger rounds, indicating that the big dance is returning. I expect things to normalize around Nov or early 2024 for mega deals. In Tekedia Capital Syndicate, we typically do 6-7 startups in a cycle, but due to interests from some of our funding clubs, investment clubs, etc, we are extending the list to 10 startups, for the cycle starting on Oct 2, 2023, as we can see enough capital to take care of the needs of all the startups. Yes, we will make extra ten investments to close the year. As always, the best companies in Africa and Nigeria are yet to be established. #build one!

Roughly 600 million people in Africa still lack access to reliable electricity. So they’ve stopped waiting for the grid to show up. They’re building something else instead—solar-first, mobile-ready, and designed to leapfrog the costly infrastructure the rest of the world takes for granted. Across the continent, businesses are turning necessity into innovation. And in the process: cutting emissions, boosting profits, and improving quality of life. My latest article for Fast Company profiles d.light—a company born out of Stanford’s legendary “Design for Extreme Affordability” course at the d.school. Today, d.light operates across Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. It employs 1,200 people and supports 15,000 local sales agents reaching last-mile customers in rural areas. The Goal: deliver a grid-like lifestyle—without the grid. Its product line spans solar kits, batteries, ultra-efficient appliances, and even in-house designed TVs. Children can study after dark. Families move beyond kerosene. Local economies stay open longer, with safer lighting and power. And d.light doesn’t stop at hardware. It’s also a fintech platform, having extended $638 million in loans through a pay-as-you-go model that unlocks solar access for low-income households. The scale speaks for itself: * 200 million lives impacted * 91 million school-aged children reached with solar lighting * 32 million households powered * 40 million tons of CO₂ emissions offset “Our job is to make solar accessible to everyone,” co-founder & CEO Nedjip Tozun told me. “Not in the future. Right now.” 📍 Full story in Fast Company: https://lnkd.in/e3_aUsNK

Africa fintech company M-KOPA with over 5 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa has reached another milestone with an affordable branded smartphone Some impressive points include: 📱 1 Million Devices Sold—Smartphones as Financial Lifelines M-KOPA has sold over 1 million branded smartphones in just 12 months, embedding financial services like credit, insurance, and device protection directly into the hardware. 🏭 Local Manufacturing, Pan-African Impact With Africa’s largest smartphone factory in Nairobi, M-KOPA has created 400+ jobs and slashed Kenya’s import bill—proving that local assembly can drive scale and affordability. 💸 Fintech Innovation Meets Daily Earners: These devices aren’t just tools—they’re gateways to income generation, credit-building, and financial inclusion for millions of underbanked Africans across 5 countries #africa #fintech #payasyougo #credit #digitalinclusion #financialinclusion #jobcreation #africameansbusiness #africarising #theafricawewant You can read more here https://lnkd.in/dZNYZvYN c/o Tech in Africa c/o M-KOPA

Why Oversimplification is Killing African Startups 🤭 Africa’s startup scene is at a turning point. Venture funding has slowed, expectations for returns are rising, and founders are under pressure to scale faster than ever. But there’s one problem: oversimplified market assumptions are quietly killing great startups. For years, big narratives have dominated: 💡 “Africa has 650M unbanked!” 💡 “Smallholder farmers drive a $230B industry!” These stats sound impressive, but here’s the truth: startups don’t sell to TAMs—they sell to real, specific customers. And when segmentation is off, even well-funded startups struggle. Look at what happened in the past year: ❌ Edukoya targeted students—but parents were the actual paying customers. Monetization stalled. ❌ Gro Intelligence tried to be everything to everyone—governments, farmers, corporates—but lacked a repeatable revenue model. ❌ Zumi pivoted to the right segment too late—after burning time and capital on the wrong one. Meanwhile, Moove cracked the code. Instead of chasing a broad “African car financing” opportunity, they zeroed in on ride-hailing drivers who needed cars but couldn’t get loans. That tight focus helped them scale sustainably, winning one high-intent segment before expanding. Lessons on how founders can build better: 🔹 Start small, then expand—Many of the best global companies (Amazon, PayPal, Airbnb) began with a niche before scaling. 🔹 TAM is a mirage—focus on customer behavior—Who needs the product urgently? Can they afford it? How do they find it? 🔹 The real opportunities aren’t always obvious—Some of the best businesses are built in “small” markets that turn out to be massive. The world’s best founders don’t just chase big markets—they segment, test, refine, and scale methodically. Full thoughts in article in comments. Let’s build better. 🚀

As an MIT finance student, reading Harvard Business School's case study "Chari: Exploring Fintech in Morocco" by Karen G. Mills and Ahmed Dahawy brought to life the unique dynamics of my home country's retail landscape. In a market where cash still rules and small shops form the backbone of daily commerce, Chari | YC S21 | Ecom and Fintech apps for retailers in Francophone Africa shows how local insight can spark meaningful change. A Revolution in Our Corner Shops 🏪 Founded by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj, Chari | YC S21 | Ecom and Fintech apps for retailers in Francophone Africa has turned the simple mobile phone into a powerful tool for 200,000+ small retailers. Through their app, they're transforming how Morocco's dense network of neighborhood shops operates, making inventory management a one-click solution. Beyond Just Another B2B App 📱 What makes Chari stand out, particularly through the lens of Morocco's financial landscape, is their deep understanding of local market dynamics. In our country, where only 32% of adults have debit cards and traditional banks often overlook small merchants, Chari's approach is revolutionary. Their acquisition of Karny brilliantly digitizes the traditional credit notebook ("le carnet") - a cornerstone of Moroccan retail culture. By transforming this age-old practice into valuable data, they're creating new pathways for merchant financing. The Numbers Speak Volumes 📊 Fresh $7.46M seed round (April 2024) $100M valuation 40% monthly growth Operations in three countries 200,000+ merchants served Chari's success, now documented in Harvard's halls, proves that understanding local context is key to innovation in emerging markets. They're not just digitizing transactions; they're preserving the cultural fabric of Moroccan commerce while propelling it into the digital age. #MoroccanTech #RetailTech #FinancialInclusion #StartupSuccess

The Real Problem With Farming in Africa Starts After the Harvest Agtech startups keep building dashboards with beautiful 3-chart interfaces , weather alerts and the notorious soil moisture sensor. But guess what? The real losses don’t happen on the screen. They happen in the sun after harvest. In Ukambani, during mango season Mangoes rot on trees. Some are sold at 2 bob a piece. Others? Eaten by goats. Or left to ferment. In Nyandarua ,cabbages go for less than 10 shillings during the peak season. Farmers can’t afford to harvest. The cost of transport is higher than the price. In Kisii and Murang’a Avocados literally fall to the ground and get eaten by dogs. Export deals? Too few. Local buyers? Too broke. Cold chains? Missing. The Bigger Issue , It’s not lack of data. It’s lack of infrastructure, market access, and value chains that protect the farmer’s profit. According to FAO, over 40% of perishable produce in Sub-Saharan Africa is lost post-harvest not due to climate, but because of: -Poor roads -No cold storage -Zero processing capacity -Market gluts with no aggregation points Want to help African farmers? Don’t start with satellite maps and moisture sensors. Start with: - Aggregation models - Cold chain innovation - Farm-to-market logistics - Local value-add facilities Farmers don’t need charts. They need off-takers. #AgtechAfrica #PostHarvestLoss #FarmersFirst #AfricanAgriculture #FoodSecurity #SupplyChainInnovation #AgriTech #LinkedInAfrica #RealProblemsRealSolutions

Last week, I had a call with a founder whose startup shut down after just 18 months. - Clear demand. - Even got into a global accelerator. But here’s what no pitch deck could prepare him for: - His suppliers defaulted because the port was backed up for 3 months. - His cloud service is billed in dollars. - His best hires had to leave because they were moving their families out of the country (JAPA) African founders are just not playing the same game. Silicon Valley builds on top of systems. African founders build in place of them. You raise money for a product, but end up creating a delivery network. Or a payments infrastructure. Or a financial inclusion engine. I’ve seen it over and over again. You have to build economies Sabi isn’t just a B2B marketplace, it’s a coordination engine for informal trade. Moove didn’t just lease cars. They rewrote how asset ownership works for the underbanked. ThriveAgric isn’t just a farming platform, it’s plugging farmers into global food systems. Bumpa isn’t just helping merchants sell online, it’s syncing inventory, delivery, payments, and customer chat all in one place None of these models fit cleanly into a Western pitch template. - But they work. - They scale. - They create jobs. - They solve for systems, not just software. So maybe the real question isn’t “Why are so many African startups dying?” Maybe it’s: How are those that are still surviving, doing it? What can we learn and adopt as the ecosystem standard? Because in this macro, in this economy, that is a miracle in itself.

What has Africa learned after 30 yrs of iterating traditional PE for our context? What is an effective financing model to grow high potential African SME into regional champions of economic growth and sustainable job creation? These are the guiding questions for a white paper I wrote at HBS, to uncover what it takes to build a successful African-relevant PE fund for lower mid cap companies. The paper, “Iterating Traditional PE in Africa”, captures insights from largest LPs in African funds (BII + pensions), GPs on relative returns of permanent capital vehicles to 10 yr funds, the case for investing in private credit by the largest African pensions, and how African family offices are engaging the private alternatives investment terrain. White Paper: bit.ly/PEAfrica Summary Podcast Episode: bit.ly/IteratingAfricaPE Sample GPs Interviewed Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, CEO, AFIG George Odo, Senior Partner, AfricInvest Dirk Holshausen, Co Founder GIP Brian Frimpong, Managing Partner, Zebu Kobi Sam, Managing Director, Emerging Market Alternative Credit, Ninety One Sample LPs Interviewed Alison Klein, former head of Africa PE Funds, FMO Jonathan Sengendo, Director, Sango Capital Hugues Vincent-Genod, Director of Fund of Funds, I&P Joseph Mate, Investment Director focused on Private Credit, BII Elodie Doussa, Senior Investment Director, BPI France (French sovereign wealth) Sample Ecosystem Advisors & Facilitators Interviewed David Ashiagbor, Chief Financial Sector Strategy Officer, AFDB Rich Nuzum, CFA, Global Chief Investment Strategist, Mercer (~$500B AUM) Mark Napier, CEO, FSD Africa Disclaimer: Insights were derived from interviews but consider any opinions or suggested implications as the author’s alone.