The European Investment Bank’s subsidiary, EIB Global, has committed $30 million in finance to Seedstars Africa Ventures.
Following a $8 million investment, French private equity firm LBO France, the fund’s anchor investor, has made a fresh commitment.
With a goal of raising between $80 million and $100 million, the fund will help seed and Series A businesses and provide follow-on investment up to Series B, filling a significant financial vacuum and assisting businesses outside of accelerator programs.
Maxime Bouan, Tamim El Zein, and Bruce Nsereko Lule, partners in the venture capital company, collaborated with Seedstars Group, an accelerator for developing markets, to create the fund by utilizing its infrastructure and market access in Africa.
“When the team launched in 2020, there was very little capital available beyond acceleration, so there was a clear need to provide more capital at this stage. The team wanted to be pan-African from the onset and be able to provide hands-on support to portfolio companies through a targeted early-stage investment strategy,” Bouan said.
Although the fund is not exclusive to any one industry, Seedstars Africa Ventures stated that it is interested in entrepreneurs who improve efficiency and provide basic necessities like healthcare, education, and utilities.
Additionally, the company intends to allocate up to 50% of the fund to Francophone Africa, an area that remains a popular destination for nascent venture capitalists due to its abundance of untapped market potential, relatively low level of competition, and superior quality and pricing of transactions when compared to the more established Anglophone countries.
Through its Seedstars International Ventures Funds I and II, the Seedstars Group has made investments in 26 African enterprises in addition to the pan-African fund.
