Venture Capital // Top 10 Firms Rooting for Africa

Venture Capital // 10 Firms Rooting for Africa

It is no secret that the 2020 pandemic hit various key sectors across the globe. Industries such as aviation, hospitality, tourism, and leisure were hit hard. As were manufacturing industries deeply connected to global value chains.

It would be imperative that African markets look beyond the safari as ties begin to deepen under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The prediction is that approximately 85% of global population growth will take place on the African continent over the next 80 years.  It means there is a need for impactful interventions and investments in solutions that will cater to the needs of the potential population boom.

Venture Capital in Africa

Venture capitalism is a form of private equity and a type of financing that investors provide to startup companies and small businesses that are believed to have long-term growth potential. It is an investment vehicle generally favored by well-off individuals, estates, banks, and other financial institutions.

Africa’s Venture Capital (VC) sector has become something of a success story with over 20 new, mostly late-stage VC funds launching and a 74% growth in equity investments into African tech start-ups in 2019 according to Partech Africa.

Technology and innovation are good starting points for those creating solutions and those interested in investing in them.

However, the opportunity exists for savvy venture capitalists who can look beyond the norm and get into investments with higher levels of risk but that will promote economic diversification and industrialization in Africa.

Industries like healthcare, agriculture, education, retail, manufacturing, energy are all necessary & indispensable to the future growth of economies in Africa. Venture Capital can easily provide much-needed capital to accelerate the growth of innovative disruption in these areas.

As the venture capitalists of the world increase their awareness of the massive opportunities presented by Africa, there are those who are already at work within the continent. Here are a shortlist of Venture Capitalist firms that are already active in Africa:

Adlevo Capital

Adlevo Capital is a Mauritius-based private equity fund manager founded by Yemi Lalude in 2007. It is the first private equity firm focused on investments into technology-enabled companies across sub-Saharan Africa.

Adlevo Capital is committed to sub-Saharan Africa and believes that market intelligence is developed through a local presence and an understanding of the dynamics of the local market. In line with this philosophy, Adlevo Capital maintains an active local presence through its base in Lagos, Nigeria.

A few of its portfolio companies include Interswitch Limited, Rancard Solutions Holdings Limited, Pagatech Holdings Limited, and Solo Phone Holdings Limited.

Chandaria Capital

Chandaria Capital is a Venture Capital fund based in Nairobi. It was founded by brothers and serial entrepreneurs, Darshan and Neer Chandaria. It is the professional investment vehicle for the Chandaria Group, one of the largest privately-owned business groups in Africa.

The fund focuses on early-stage, sector-agnostic funds. They invest in scalable, high-impact businesses that have unique competitive advantages, and are backed by committed, innovative entrepreneurs, creating sustainable long-term growth for Africa.

The company’s holistic approach includes mentorship, business development, sourcing talent, due diligence, raising capital, technology deployment, marketing, and communications strategy, customer acquisition, and exit strategies.

To date, Chandaria Capital has grown its portfolio of exciting companies like Mobius Motors, Sokowatch, Koko Networks, Kobo360, Ilara Health, and Doorsteps UK.

Chanzo Capital

Chanzo Capital is an early-stage micro Venture Capital firm investing both capital and mentoring in high-tech startups in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa (KINGS) – these countries make up the KINGS of Africa’s digital economy.

The company invests between $25,000 and $2M staggered over the early life of the company from Pre-seed to Series A. The firm intends to finance the growth and development of the high-tech sector through the provision of capital, mentoring, and value creation services to our portfolio of companies.

Convergence Partners

Convergence Partners is a pan-African tech-focused private equity player. Its main focus is on initiatives that increase the availability of communications, broadband services, and new technology offerings to the people of Africa. In other words, they focus on investment in the Technology, Media, and Telecom sector. Few of its portfolio companies include Bloodhound, Britehouse, DFA, Comsol, Inala Broadcast, and LifeQ. Thus it is one of the top Venture Capital Firms In Africa

Based in Johannesburg, Andile Ngcaba founded this venture capitalism firm in 2006. In addition to this, Mr. Ngcaba has also served on the board and high-level panel responsible for outcomes of the Netmundial multi-stakeholder conference on Internet governance, and he also serves on the council of The National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI).

Enza Capital

Based in Kenya, Enza Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in information technology (IT) sector companies. Enza makes venture investments from $50k to $1 million on the first cheque in technology companies operating in sub-Saharan Africa.

The company also provides entrepreneurial guidance and operations expertise to its funded startups, with the help of its deep industry networks and experienced team. It has made a total of 1 investment and is actively seeking investment opportunities. The firm’s portfolio is made up of fast-growing African Startups including Sendy, Tugende, Lynk, and Vula.

Enygma Ventures

Enygma Ventures is a US$ 5,953,500  venture capital fund that focuses on female entrepreneurs in Southern Africa.

Its main preferred geographical location for investment is in Angola, Botswana, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

They have 11 entrepreneurs in their 2020 cohort who are currently going through our investor-ready program. As a result, it is one of the top venture capital in Africa. Especially for female entrepreneurs.

Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Sarah Dusek, and Jacob Dusek incorporated Enygma Ventures in 2019. In addition to this, they both are also the co-founders of Under Canvas.

IDF Capital

Based in Gauteng, South Africa, Polo Leteka incorporated IDF Capital in 2008. In addition to IDF capital, Polo Leteka has diverse experience in both the public and private sectors of South Africa, including investment banking, corporate finance, accounting and auditing, Venture capital, private equity, etc.

The firm mainly invests in Small and Medium Enterprises with potential growth. In addition to this, in 2015, IDF Capital jointly established a Sub-Saharan Africa SME PE Fund called Alitheia IDF in collaboration with Alitheia Capital of Lagos, Nigeria.

Saviu Ventures

Saviu Ventures is an Africa-focused Venture capital firm based in Nairobi, Kenya. Saviu Ventures invests primarily in Seed stage, early-stage, and later-stage companies.

It majorly invests in commercial products, commercial services, retail, E-Commerce, FinTech, and mobility sectors in Africa.  In addition to funding, it provides startups with feedback and mentoring.

The firm has a team of 15+ investors With diverse backgrounds and Deep experience to support the entrepreneurs. The venture capital firm has a portfolio of 9 Investments and a total of 11 Investments since its Inception.

Savoy Ventures are an alumnus of Nairobi Garage.

TLCom Capital Partners

TLcom Capital is a Lagos, Nairobi & London-based venture capital firm investing in Tech and Innovation since 1999 across Africa, Europe, Israel, and the US.

In June of 2017, TLcom had announced the first close of its TIDE Africa Fund, with $40m of commitments targeting African Tech early to growth-stage companies. TIDE Africa is focused on helping the best companies utilizing mobile as a platform to serve and solve Africa’s most pressing needs.

TLcom currently manages total commitments of approximately $300m via a series of dedicated investment vehicles, including the TLcom I and TLcom II funds, other technology portfolios acquired on the secondary market.

The firm’s investment strategy is to identify, back, and assist high-quality entrepreneurs and management teams with disruptive technologies and business models, compelling intellectual property, and deep market knowledge.

TL Com, are an alumnus of Nairobi Garage, and primarily target companies in the following industry segments:

• Financial Services / Fintech
• eCommerce / Logistics
• B2C (including health, education, energy, transportation, media)
• B2B (focused on mobile-centric solutions to SMEs and business tools for businesses);  and reducing the cost of data services (mostly via software).

TLCom Capital portfolio currently includes Twiga Foods, Ajua (formerly mSurvey), Kobo360, Andela, Terragon Group, Ulesson, among others.

Vantage Capital

Based in Cape town, Colin Rezek incorporated Vantage Capital in 2001. In addition to Vantage Capital, he was also a part of the founding group of Rezek Motor Group.

Furthermore, he also established MMR Equity Capital, a private equity management company that following a merger in 2001, is now known as Vantage Capital Group.

Since 2006, its Mezzanine division has made 27 investments across that includes equity investment, Rosslyn Riviera, and New GX Capital.

While Vantage Capital’s GreenX division has made 14 debt investments into South African solar and wind energy projects. It has raised over US$ 1.1 B for African companies.

Also, it mainly focuses on Commercial Services, Forestry, Other Business Products and Services, Other Financial Services, Software. Its preferred geographical location for investments is in the Southern African Region.

Featured Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels.