Serial tech entrepreneur and former Andela and Flutterwave co-founder, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji’s Future Africa has announced an impressive record for the first quarter of 2021.
According to the outfit which describes itself as a fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups turning Africa’s most difficult challenges into opportunities in a letter to its investors says it has been able to fund a total of 13 startups with $3million in capital barely into the first half of the year, this figure it says is double what it recorded in 2020. This brings its total number of investments as a fund to 47.
Last year, the fund invested more than $1million in 16 startups and returned $3.7 million to some of the firm’s first limited partners.
Other achievements it highlighted in the report are as follows:
It has made more pan-African investments and portfolio now includes startups in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.
It surpassed its $1million commitment to women-led startups and are currently evaluating more women-led startups to increase this number.
The 13 companies it has funded so fa in 2021 are as follows:
Termii
As a fund, it co-led Termii’s $1.4M seed round with Kepple Africa Ventures. Termii is a fast-growing startup out of Lagos that helps African businesses send, analyse and optimise digital communications across e-mail, SMS, voice, and WhatsApp.
Lami
It participated in Lami’s $1.8m seed round. Led by Jihan Abass, Lami is helping African insurers use artificial intelligence to provide better services to the insured and expand faster to the uninsured.
Ongair
Ongair is a customer service platform for businesses. It allows companies to interact with their customers via major messaging apps like WeChat, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram.
Stitch
It participated in Stitch’s $4m seed round. Coming out of stealth, Stitch is building APIs to enable fintechs to connect to their customers’ accounts across Africa.
Others who are yet to publicly announce their funding:
A startup connecting Africans to the global economy with cryptocurrency. We’re impressed not just by its founding team but its ability to develop products despite challenges in this market.
A pharmaceutical startup that uses Artificial Intelligence to solve the drug counterfeiting problem in Africa.
A startup building programmable cards. Its API helps businesses create flexible virtual and physical cards for multiple purposes.
A startup in the retail space, providing credit-backed goods for retailers in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Nigeria.
A digital bank enabling transactions for financial organisations operating in the UK-Africa corridor. This bank will first solve for the UK-Africa corridor and expand into the rest of Europe.
A startup helping African distributors manage inventory and sales. It’s growing fast and now supports distributors on its platform, with almost 400 merchants.
A startup helping FMCGs and similar organisations optimise sales and distribution. Its clients include large telecom operators and the biggest manufacturers in Africa.
A digital bank for African immigrants. It facilitates remittances and other payments between the diaspora and home.
A digital learning and school management platform for African students. This platform is now active in 3 countries and used by over 700 schools.
Applicants join the fund’s investor pool with a $1,000 annual subscription fee which gives them a minimum of $5,000 in up to 20 African startups each year.
