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Ventures Platform has raised an oversubscribed $83 million second fund as the Pan-African venture firm expands beyond its home market of Nigeria with a strategy shaped by a tougher, more selective venture market. <\/p>\n
The firm plans to back early-stage founders across a range of sectors, including fintech, healthcare, SaaS and other areas \u201cwhere technology can address essential needs and build large, enduring businesses,\u201d Kola Aina, the firm\u2019s founding partner, told TechCrunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, AI is part of that thesis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re particularly interested in where AI changes the economics of serving African markets,\u201d he said, pointing to its potential to reduce the cost of delivering services and help overcome labor shortages. \u201cFor us, AI is most interesting when it is not simply a feature, but an enabler of an entirely different cost structure, business model or market.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ventures Platform<\/a>, which is headquartered in Nigeria, previously raised a $46 million Fund I<\/a> in 2022 with a similar, albeit more limited scope. The first fund focused primarily on pre-seed and seed rounds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt allowed us to demonstrate that our approach to early-stage investing in Africa could work at an institutional scale and laid the foundation for Fund II,\u201d Aina said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, Ventures Platform is back with a larger fund and wider geographic mandate.<\/p>\n The firm is expanding its focus beyond Nigeria and has already written checks from Fund II to five companies based in Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. Check sizes will be up to $3 million, and the firm hopes to deploy the capital over the next three to four years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are particularly interested in markets where technology can expand access to essential products and services, address critical infrastructure gaps, and create entirely new categories of consumption,\u201d Aina said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The fundraising process took about a year and a half, with Aina describing the environment as more \u201cselective,\u201d\u00a0than it was when Ventures Platform raised Fund I.<\/p>\n \u201cLPs are asking harder questions about performance, portfolio construction, liquidity, manager discipline, and differentiation,\u201d Aina said.<\/p>\n From his perspective, the market is still cautious, as LPs demand more evidence that managers can turn portfolio value into realized returns. Capital is no longer assumed to be unlimited, especially after many LPs felt burned by the venture bust a few years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe result is a much greater appreciation for capital efficiency, stronger fundamentals, governance, regulatory engagement, and the importance of building businesses that can survive different funding cycles,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a much clearer understanding that building valuable companies and generating venture returns require more than simply raising successive rounds of capital.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This year, African startups have raised around $930 million across more than 200 deals. Last year, startups on the continent raised $1.16 billion across 447 deals.<\/p>\n As TechCrunch previously reported, the venture market is now a barbell \u2014 with LPs giving capital to a handful of firms at the top and to emerging managers with a track record they can trust.<\/p>\n \u201cThree years ago, there was still a significant amount of curiosity around the African opportunity. Today, LPs expect proof,\u201d Aina said, adding that this discipline is actually healthy for the market.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe conversation has moved from \u2018Why Africa\u2019 to \u2018Why you and how exactly are you going to generate returns,\u2019\u201d he said, adding that simply being a pan-African fund is no longer a strategy. LPs want to know more about access to top talent, how funds are navigating individual markets, and \u201cwhy you have the right to win,\u201d Aina said.\u00a0\u201cThat combination of local depth and global connectivity is increasingly important as the ecosystem matures.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, he said that is the biggest edge his firm offers. This latest generation of founders and fund managers has seen what it is like to deal with both an abundance of capital and hardly any at all. He said it\u2019s more important than ever to understand the institutional and market realities founders face while also connecting companies to regional and global networks as they scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n That pitch seems to have resonated with existing investors: 70% of Fund I\u2019s LPs returned for Fund II. Backers include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Norfund (Norway\u2019s development finance institution), and Ghana\u2019s Ashesi University Foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t take that for granted,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n