The early-stage and international fund of Lagos-based Ventures Platform, a pan-African VC company, has reached a final close of US $46 million.
The Ventures Platform Fund is a discovery fund that makes early investments in founders with a mission who are developing capital-efficient platforms that democratize wealth, close infrastructure gaps, link marginalized populations, and enhance livelihoods in Africa. With investments ranging from pre-seed to Series A businesses in a variety of industries, the company offers Africa’s most audacious businesspeople smart funding and growth assistance.
The oversubscribed fund from one of the most active investors on the continent now has new participation from international investors, including a variety of top-tier corporates, DFIs, global institutional investors, HNIs, and commercial banks. These investors include Standard Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), British International Investment, A to Z Impact, Proparco with FISEA, and AfricaGrow.
With the help of the new fund, Ventures Platform will increase its commitment to supporting a group of continent-wide, category-leading businesses and enable follow-on investments for portfolio firms up to Series A.
Ventures Platform has also created a cutting-edge “platform and networks” approach that will offer its portfolio firms scalable, top-notch post-investment assistance and value generation in an effort to better support the businesses it invests in.
The early-stage “discovery” venture capital fund has invested fresh money and follow-on capital into businesses across a variety of industries and areas across the continent since the fund’s initial closure late last year, including Remedial Health, Moni Notto, and Chargel. Ventures Platform is aggressively looking for possibilities in places like Kenya, Egypt, and French-speaking West Africa in order to further strengthen its pan-African reach.
Ventures Platform has added a number of key team members at the partnership and senior management levels in addition to the fund’s closing. Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku, an entrepreneur, investor, and former principal of the pan-African venture capital company Novastar Ventures, has joined the VC firm as a managing partner.
“We are honoured to have the breadth of both local and global investors who have bought into our vision and who equally are bringing immense value to our portfolio. This is a crowning close to an eventful year in which we made substantial advancements both in the tactical and the proprietary interventions that catalyse our portfolio companies,” said Kola Aina, founder, and general partner at Ventures Platform.
“Dotun’s hands-on pan-African experience, from working with both startups and institutional investors, brings an invaluable perspective that will help with our continued growth. We look forward to helping our portfolio companies maximise their full potential whilst also consolidating our position as a key and dependable business partner for investors in Africa.”
