NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 16 – Egyptian-based seed investor Flat6Labs has unveiled a Sh12.33 billion seed fund targeting Kenyan and African startups.
The fund seeks to nurture the growth and development of early-stage tech startups in the country as well as on the continent.
The Africa Seed Fund (ASF) will focus on three main investment territories in North Africa, West Africa, and East Africa.
Through the capital, the firm said it will be extending its reach into Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Senegal, among others.
The ASF will be led by Ramez El-Serafy and Dina el-Shenoufy as General Partners for the fund.
It will invest in more than 160 early-stage startups over the next five years in the HealthTech, FinTech, EdTech, GreenTech, AgriTech, ClimateTech, and other sectors.
“We are extremely excited about the launch of the Africa Seed Fund. Africa is one of the most exciting regions to invest in tech and innovation, with huge untapped potential and unique business opportunities,” ASF General Partner Ramez El-Serafy said.
“We will leverage our experience and knowledge to guide the startup founders to create truly scalable, investment-ready, Africa-based companies.”
Investments is set to create more than 14,000 jobs, provide support to more than 1,200 founders with 20 percent female participation, and generate revenue of more than $700 million.
“We have observed that the entrepreneurial market has matured over the years with a new wave of founders that are more experienced. We will also cater for these founders and offer higher ticket sizes to support these companies and a different track to the program,” ASF General Partner Dina el-Shenoufy said.
The ASF is supported by the GIZ on behalf of the German Government, and through the Egyptian Agricultural Innovation Project (AIP) and Scaling Digital Agricultural Innovations through Start-ups project (SAIS).
This comes after Kenyan startups raised a record Sh71.85 billion last year, boosted by record funding in the fintech, and retail-tech sectors.
Latest data from Disrupt Africa, an online news platform for startups, shows that funding increased from Sh36.49 billion in 2021 to Sh71.85 billion in 2022, representing a 96.9 percent jump.
