New Delhi, Dec. 9 -- Seedstars Africa Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on high-growth companies in Sub Saharan Africa, marked the final close of its $80 million target inaugural fund, achieving the half-way mark.
The VC firm with offices in Nairobi, Dakar, and Paris that backs high-growth companies across Sub-Saharan Africa, has raised $42 million for the first close of its Seedstars Africa Ventures I, to back 'highly scalable startups' in the continent. It saw participation from institutional investors, including the African Development Bank, EIB Global with the support of the European Union, under the ACP Trust Fund - EU Compartment and Boost Africa among other global investors. EIB Global equity had committed an investment of $30 million.
With the $8 million of anchor commitment by private equity firm LBO France, the Fund I's total commitments stand at $50 million.
Seedstars Africa Ventures was founded by Maxime Bouan, Tamim El Zein and Bruce Nsereko Lule in 2020, in partnership with Switzerland-based Seedstars Group, an emerging markets accelerator, and LBO France, a multi-country multi-specialist investment platform.
The investment vehicle has already deployed over $10 million to five startups in sectors like climate, food systems, energy access, internet connectivity, financial inclusion, and payments infrastructure sectors.
Seedstars Africa Ventures invests in ticket sizes between $250,000 and $2 million as part of the initial investments across Seed and Series A rounds, with a follow-on capacity of up to $5 million.
Its five portfolio companies include Kenya-based agritech company Shamba Pride, Nigeria-based grid management SaaS company Beacon Power Services, Ivory Coast-based payment aggregator Bizao, Kenya-based broadband internet provider Poa! Internet, and fintech platform Xeno.
"The African Development Bank views Seedstars Africa Ventures as a strategic opportunity to provide innovative support to Africa's venture capital industry. It serves as a conduit to improve access to finance for youth and women while also enhancing the availability of risk capital in Francophone Africa. This is an area that has traditionally faced limited access to risk capital," said Ahmed Attout, African Development Bank Group Director for Financial Sector Development.
Other investment vehicles by the Seedstars group include Seedstars International Ventures, an industry-agnostic, early-stage emerging markets fund. The second Seedstars International Ventures fund has deployed capital in 44 companies across countries such as Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Nigeria, and Egypt, in sectors including B2B FinTech, marketplaces, and SaaS companies. These include Philippines supply chain company Humble, Indian financial services company DataCultr, and Bangladesh's food and beverage company Kludio.
Besides, Seedstars is currently working towards launching funds focused on EdTech, supply chain, ClimateTech and other impact sectors.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.