You’re a founder looking for venture capital in Africa - how do you do it? Is it worth the cold email, filling out the contact form on the VC’s homepage, or is it more about who you know, or whether you’ve been profiled by Disrupt Africa?
Africa, like the rest of the world, is going through a VC funding “winter”, with a capital crunch threatening the survival of many leading startups. But Erick Yong, from Africa-focused investor GreenTec Capital Partners and the Zeitec Investment Office, remains bullish on the African tech space in spite of current challenges.
Not enough African startup founders understand properly how venture capital works, but investors also need to ensure they can empathise with founders if meaningful relationships are to be established.
Atlantica Ventures, an Africa-focused impact VC fund co-founded by Aniko Szigetvari and Ik Kanu in 2019, has made eight investments so far, and still has plenty of its US$50 million fund left to disperse as it seeks to power African tech startups from seed through to Series B.
To the uninitiated, the world of venture capital is a mysterious one, with many assuming VC fund managers are just rich men and women looking to get even richer.