P1 Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage investments across Africa, has successfully concluded the initial funding round for its second fund, securing $25 million.
The new fund will build on the success of the first fund as well as the huge opportunity in Africa’s tech sector.
“As far I know, I’m the first Mauritanian who’s ever launched a fund. Coming from a relatively small economy inspires us at P1 Ventures to go off the beaten path and back the underdogs. We love ambitious African founders that build products and services addressing a regional, if not global, customer base,” said founder and general partner Mikael Hajjar.
“Combining our deep local knowledge, our strong data orientation and our experience as investors, we can identify unique opportunities and help entrepreneurs become global winners.”
This investor prides itself with the commitment to identifying and supporting a select group of outstanding African founders and companies. They specifically target businesses that are developing groundbreaking software solutions with the potential for regional and global impact in sectors such as fintech, e-commerce, health-tech, SaaS, and AI.
Since inception in 2020, P1 Ventures has made investments in 29 early-stage companies spanning across 10 different countries. Some notable investments include:
- MoneyFellows in Egypt
- Reliance Health in Nigeria, and
- Yassir in Algeria
In September 2023, P1 Ventures led a $2 million pre-seed funding round to KotaniPay, a Kenyan startup which offers crypto on-off ramps in several African countries.
P1 Ventures anticipates finalizing its funding round by early 2024, Co-Founder Hajjar said, while reiterating the opportunity they see across the continent.
“What Africa is going through right now, we believe, is very similar to what Europe went through 25 years ago or what Latin America went through eight years ago. We believe P1 is best positioned to emerge as the premier VC just like Index Ventures did in Europe or Kaszek in Latin America.”
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