The news spotlight is firmly back onto Africa’s high-flying technology scene this week, with the news that a venture fund backed by the Nigerian Government has made its first investment. It is the anchor investor in the second fund issued by Lagos-based Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s most active early-stage investors, which has just announced it raised $64 million out of a $75m target for VP Pan-African Fund II.
Government throwing its considerable weight behind technology start-up companies is likely to be highly significant. Nigeria’s burgeoning startup community is home to the largest number of startup unicorns on the continent, according to this article on TechCrunch. The investment is by the Government’s $618m Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE).
Lagos is one of Africa’s key tech hubs and Ventures Platform is a key driver of success. Its website gives indications of how the platform works and the transformational technologies and companies it backs. It is the technology equity investment partner in the fund.
Ventures Platform investors are back for more
Venture Partners’ founding partner Kola Aina told TechCrunch that 70% of the investors in the VP first fund are back from more.
Investors in the second fund include the International Finance Corp, the UK Government’s British International Investment (BII), France’s Proparco, Standard Bank Group, MSMEDA and AfricaGrow, along with European family offices such as Alder Tree Investment and prominent global backers such as Michael Seibel, the former CEO of Y Combinator. prestigious American startup accelerator and venture capital firm, a prestigious American startup accelerator and venture capital firm.
Nigerian Government backs startups
iDICE was launched in 2023 and is co-financed by the Bank of Industry (BoI), the African Development Bank, the Agence Française de Développement and the Islamic Development Bank. BOI oversees the fund, which will act as a technology incubator.
Olasupo Olusi, CEO of BOI, said: iDICE will boost “the Nigerian technology and creative sectors by catalyzing strategic investments in high-growth, technology-enabled enterprises”, reported in to this story on Bloomberg news.
Ife Adebayo, national coordinator of iDICE was quoted in Bloomberg saying that startups struggle to raise capital and iDICE will give them “the kind of foundation that they need to grow. He said it will invest up to $137m as equity and $110m as debt in startups. Its preferred investment route will be via other funds on the basis that the investee fund’s manager matches its investment at least one-to-one by the fund’s manager. He added that private-sector partners have pledged to raise another $217m.
