$10 M fund for frontier tech in Africa, other markets launched by Tofino Capital

Tofino Capital, a venture capital firm, has completed the first close of a $10 million fund aimed at investing in early-stage firms in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.

Tofino Capital, which was founded by Eliot Pence and Aubrey Hruby, has acquired money from limited partners including major family offices, top-tier venture funds, and HNWIs, and will invest between $50,000 and $1 million in pre-seed and seed startups across all industries, with a concentration on B2B. The fund is based on Pence and Hruby’s personal angel investments in Sabi, SeamlessHR, and Eksab, among others.

“We were driven by a question we didn’t think the venture community had answered. ‘Why do some of the fastest growing markets have the lowest per capita availability of venture financing?’ Egypt, Philippines, Nigeria and Bangladesh, for example, have on average US$5 per capita of venture investment, whereas China is above US$40,” Pence said.

“We were also inspired by firms like Founders Fund, A16Z and Derris, which emphasise the importance of the founder and the story they are telling. For many entrepreneurs in frontier markets, having an amazing story isn’t the hard part, it’s getting the story out there that’s hard. We feel we are uniquely positioned to help them do that.”

Pence and Hruby are also co-founders of insiderPR, a public relations business that claims to have early access to some of developing countries’ fastest-growing firms.