Atlantica Ventures, an Africa-focused venture capital company, has raised a $50 million fund to invest in tech and tech-enabled companies from the initial stage.
Atlantica Ventures was established in 2019 by Aniko Szigetvari and Ik Kanu, who previously worked for IFC, Helios, and Convergence and have extensive angel investment experience.
Paystack, which was recently acquired by Stripe, and Sendy are among the companies in Atlantica Ventures’ portfolio.
“These are important contributors to the GDPs of the target markets and are interconnected, allowing for value chain/platform investing,” Kanu said. “These industries are both recession-resistant and compatible with the future of jobs. COVID-19 has driven technology penetration across our target markets, and these industries have been critical to the economies.”
“We invest from seed to Series B rounds, using a data-driven approach to evaluate investment opportunities and monitor our portfolios. These businesses are addressing critical local issues and have shown product market fit as well as the potential to scale internationally, according to Kanu.
African entrepreneurs, according to Kanu, face “access” problems in terms of funding, markets, strategic partners, and expertise, with capital and knowledge being at the forefront of these issues.
It has already invested in Nigerian startups Curacel and OnePipe with this latest US$50 million pan-African VC fund.
Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Tanzania are the primary target markets, accounting for 60% of Africa’s GDP, with fintech, logistics, agri-tech, digital security, IoT, and B2B marketplaces at the forefront.
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