SeedStars Africa Ventures, a pan-African seed fund startup, has appointed Bruce Nsereko-Lule as a new general partner to deploy additional capital and provide much-needed technical support to founders across the continent.
Seedstars Africa Ventures – part of the Seedstars Group, an accelerator and VC operating in more than 30 emerging markets globally – will provide up to $2 million in seed and Series A capital. The fund counts French equity firm LBO France among its limited partners, and since inception has invested more than $5 million in five startups, including Kenyan ISP Po Internet and Nigeria’s Grid Management SaaS for electricity distribution utilities. In 2020.
The fund, which plans to deploy additional capital over the next few months, will leverage Nsereko Lule’s extensive experience and networks gained over the years as an active venture capitalist in Africa.
Nsereko Lule told TechCrunch that the focus on the fund is to make great investments on the continent and provide initial and follow-on funding to help startups build and grow businesses.
“We’ll put in an initial check ($250,000 to $500,000) and basically lead the round. And we’ll continue to fund it until the business grows appropriately, and maybe hits profitability and there are opportunities for exits and exits.” said Nsereko-Lule, who joined Tamim El Zein and Maxime Bowan, the fund’s general partners.
“By doing this, we’re providing more funding to local founders and trying to stop this constant fundraising cycle that founders find themselves in. The support is meant to help them spend their full time building the business.”
Seedstars Africa Ventures General partners (LR) Tamim El Zein, Bruce Nsereko-Lule and Maxime Bouan Image creditsSeedstars Africa Ventures
Prior to joining the fund, Nsereko-Lule was previously the founding investment principal of Chandaria Capital, a Kenya-based VC fund established in 2017 to serve as an investment vehicle for Chandaria Industries. He previously worked as an investment banker in the UK.
Chandaria Capital has supported 38 startups
Nesereko Lule said during his tenure at Chandaria Capital, he invested millions of dollars in 38 startups, initially starting in Kenya before expanding to other African and emerging markets in South America and Asia.
By the end of its tenure, the sector-agnostic fund had completed 52 transactions (including follow-on investments) in startups such as TuShop, Jamba, Wasoko, Kobo360, TradeDepot, Carry1st, Shara and Chari.
“I was running operations, and it was an interesting journey – it was completely new, but I had a finance background. From day one, we decided to be a sector-agnostic fund, because we saw a number of investment opportunities across the continent.”
At Seedstars Africa Ventures, Nsereko-Lule plans to continue to support founders on the continent at a higher level, believing that there are many great startups in Africa struggling to get funding.
“Venture capital is doing very well in Africa. You see a lot of businesses getting funding, building sustainable business models, growing and growing. The amazing fact is that the startups we’ve invested in have raised over $450 million after investment. So this is really Africa where companies grow and become successful.” It will ensure that she is able to create an environment where important businesses can run,” Nesreko Lule said.
“We are also in the fortunate position of having a very high success rate,” he added. Startups manage to scale right and make more money. And we are starting to see the growth of exits.
The Seedstars Africa Ventures fund aims to raise $100 million to invest in startups in Africa, which continues to receive the least amount of VC funding compared to other regions in the world. Last year, the continent received nearly $5 billion in VC funding, nearly double the previous year, but the amount paled in comparison to markets like the US ($311-$329.8 billion) and India ($42 billion).
However, the Nsereko-Lule ecosystem continues to grow.
“There are many opportunities to invest, deliver good returns and at the same time make an impact on the continent.”
