Pan-African venture capital firm Ventures Platform has closed its second fund at $84 million, exceeding its earlier target of $75 million, as the Lagos-based early-stage investor widens its scope beyond Nigeria into Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.
Ventures Platform, which backs early-stage founders across fintech, healthcare, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other sectors, has already deployed capital from the new fund to five companies in these newer markets, founding partner Kola Aina told TechCrunch. Cheque sizes from Fund II will go up to $3 million, and the firm expects to deploy the capital over the next three to four years.
“We’re particularly interested in where AI changes the economics of serving African markets,” Aina said, pointing to artificial intelligence’s potential to cut the cost of delivering services and ease labour shortages in sectors the firm backs.
Ventures Platform’s bigger, wider-reaching fund
Fund II follows Ventures Platform’s debut $46 million fund raised in 2022, which focused mainly on pre-seed and seed-stage investments. The new fund is both larger and broader in scope, with the firm now looking to back founders “where technology can address essential needs and build large, enduring businesses,” according to Aina.
The raise, which Aina said took about a year and a half to close, comes against a tougher funding backdrop across the continent. African startups have raised roughly $930 million across more than 200 deals so far this year, down from $1.16 billion across 447 deals over the same period last year, according to figures cited by Aina.
He attributed the closing of Fund II to limited partners (LPs) demanding sharper proof of returns rather than betting on the broader African growth story, as many did in previous years.
“LPs are asking harder questions about performance, portfolio construction, liquidity, manager discipline, and differentiation,” Aina said.
Some 70% of Fund I’s LPs returned to back Fund II, Aina said, with backers including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Norway’s development finance institution Norfund, and Ghana’s Ashesi University Foundation.
Also read: Ventures Platform closes fund at $45 million
Aina said the current funding climate, while more selective, is healthy for the ecosystem.
“Three years ago, there was still a significant amount of curiosity around the African opportunity. Today, LPs expect proof,” he said, adding that pan-African reach alone no longer counts as a strategy.
Investors, he said, now want clarity on access to local talent, market-specific execution, and “why you have the right to win.”
