Founders Factory Africa, an African early-stage investor, has raised $114 million to fund African startups. The studio says it will become sector-agnostic and double down on addressing gender imbalances with the new funding.
Founders Factory Africa has secured $114 million in funding to scale its model across the African tech ecosystem. The additional funding comes from the Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, an impact fund within the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, and follows on from previous investments by Standard Bank, the Small Foundation, and Netcare.
Founders Factory Africa’s portfolio cuts across 55 ventures in 11 African countries. The portfolio covers fintech and healthtech companies and includes Asaak, an asset financing startup for boda boda drivers in East Africa; Envisionit Deep AI, a South African medical technology company using AI to transform medical imaging diagnosis; Fresh Source, an Egyptian food tech startup.
The studio says it will use this funding to become sector-agnostic, address gender imbalances in the ecosystem, broaden its capital investment offering to include non-dilutive capital, and strengthen internal capacity.
The venture studio combines a traditional venture capital approach with what it describes as, “bespoke hands-on venture support.” In addition to equity checks of up to $250,000 for ventures at the idea, pre-seed and seed stages, it can invest up to $150,000 in additional equity-free capital to “catalyse investments.” This non-dilutive funding is meant to provide founders with additional runway to pursue growth and catalyse other investors.
“We are excited to have new and dynamic funding, which follows on from previous investments into Founders Factory Africa by Standard Bank Group, Small Foundation, and Netcare Group,” said Alina Truhina, co-founder of Founders Factory Africa.
“Our new fund will allow us to continue supporting the continent’s most promising early-stage ventures – and their exceptional founders – with the capital and resources they need to fuel their growth,” said Sam Sturm, the chief portfolio officer of Founders Factory Africa.
Editorial Note:
Corrected the amount of additional equity-free funding Founders Factory Africa invests in portfolio companies.
Corrected a previous statement that implied that Founders Factory Africa is the same as Founders Factory UK.
