VC fund Ventures Platform closes its pan-African and early-stage fund at $46M

Ventures Platform, a pan-African early-stage Venture Capital firm has today announced the final close of its intercontinental fund, at $46M. 

Surpassing its initial $40M target, the new fund will see Ventures Platform double down on backing a cohort of category-leading companies across the continent and will also allow for follow-on investments for portfolio companies, up to Series A.

In a bid to better support the companies it invests in, Ventures Platform has also established an innovative “platform and networks” practice that will provide scalable and world-class post-investment support and value creation to its portfolio companies. 

Since the first close of the fund late last year, the early-stage “discovery” venture capital fund has deployed new capital and follow-on capital into companies across various verticals and regions on the continent, such as Remedial Health, Moni Notto, and Chargel. To further consolidate its pan-African reach, Ventures Platform is actively seeking opportunities in regions such as Kenya, Egypt, and French-speaking West Africa.

Since its launch in 2016, Ventures Platform has leveraged its on-the-ground presence on the continent and expertise in corporate partnerships, talent, growth, regulation and operations to strengthen the venture capital ecosystem in Africa, acting as a key partner and conduit for international funds and stakeholders. 

The VC firm has over 60 active investments, including Nomba (formerly Kudi), Reliance HMO, Brass, MarketForce, Mono and Piggyvest to add to the successful exit of Paystack (acquired by Stripe). Whilst focussing on funding market-creating innovations that optimise for non-consumption, Ventures Platform has accrued one of the largest technology start-up portfolios on the continent. Investing from pre-seed stage up to Series A, the fund invests in startups across multiple sectors, ranging from Fintech, Insurtech, Life Science and Health Tech, Edtech and Digital talent accelerators, Enterprise SaaS, Digital Infrastructure Plays, Agritech and Food Security. 

‘We are honoured to have the breadth of both local and global investors who have bought into our vision and who equally are bringing immense value to our portfolio. This is a crowning close to an eventful year in which we made substantial advancements both in the tactical and the proprietary interventions that catalyze our portfolio companies.” Kola Aina, Founder and General Partner at Ventures Platform said. 

“We recognize the tougher macroeconomic climate at present, and whilst we remain cautious in terms of market dynamics and remain grounded in our long-standing belief in proper due diligence and corporate governance, we are also acutely aware that with our investment thesis, which is centred on market-creating innovations that thrive when value-chains and markets are restructured, there continues to be incredible opportunities across the market. ” he added.

Ventures Platform’s portfolio companies have to-date gone on to raise more than $1b in follow-on funding. 

The oversubscribed fund saw new participation from global investors with an array of top-tier commercial banks, corporates, DFIs, global institutional investors and HNIs, including Standard Bank, International Finance Corporation [IFC], British International Investment, A to Z Impact, Proparco with FISEA, AfricaGrow a Fund of Funds backed by BMZ [German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, DEG and Allianz, managed by Allianz Global Investors], and others.