Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) has announced that it has raised $43 million for its pan-African venture fund. The fund’s initial backers include institutions such as SBI Holdings, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, and individual investors like Mr. Osamu Kaneda.
The announcement comes on the back of a resilient 2022 in the African tech-ecosystem where the interest in venture capital in Africa grew by 8% despite a global economic crisis.
VKAV is the first fund by Verod-Kepple Africa Partners, a joint venture between Verod Capital Management Limited and Kepple Africa Ventures. Launched in 2022, VKAV invests in scalable, tech-enabled, post-revenue businesses that address difficult challenges across various industries on the African continent.
VKAV’s current investments include:
- Moove Africa (Nigerian smart vehicle finance for mobility entrepreneurs)
- NowPay (Egypt’s financial wellness fintech for employees)
- Koko Networks (Kenya’s clearn cooking technology firm)
- Ceviant (Nigeria’s treasury management and trade finance)
- Chari (Morocco’s B2B eCommerce servicer)
- Shuttlers (Nigeria’s shared mobility platform)
- Nawy (Egyptian end-to-end platform for powering property transactions)
- Julaya (Cote d’Ivoire’s neobank for businesses in Francophone West Africa)
The above investments are in companies that operate in multiple African markets and offer a diverse range of services across varying market verticals.
“We are convinced that there is a tremendous opportunity for technology to drive innovation and growth in Africa. We are excited to spearhead this transformation through our investment in category-defining startups, and to create a positive impact on the communities they serve,” stated VKAV Partner, Satoshi Shinada.
VKAV says it is committed to generating outstanding returns and achieving meaningful social impact by backing entrepreneurs who are committed to solving big challenges while serving as a catalyst to support collaborations between African startups and Japanese strategic partners to achieve superior growth and Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) best practices in the portfolio.
According to VKAV, its portfolio companies are serving, not only African, but also global customers with a total impact of 800,000+ individuals and small businesses in 9 markets, six of which are in Africa, while creating over 2,000 jobs.
“This will be our first investment in the African VC sector. We consider it a critical step for us as a development agency to integrate technology innovations and its fast-growing ecosystems into the broader arena of social and economic development in developing countries,” said Keiichiro Nakazawa, Senior Vice President, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The VC Fund raise comes just 2 months after Partech, a global investor, raised $263 million for its second AfricaTech Fund which looks to invest in African startups ranging from seed to growth stage.
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