$6 Million Funding Opportunity for African Startups

The lack of information on accessing funding opportunities is one of the challenges African startups experience, especially at the initial stage. US-based venture capital firm Flourish Ventures has launched a pan-African investment platform, Madica. 

This growth saw over 600 African tech startups access over $5.2 billion in funds in 2021. According to African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (AVCA), if the year ends on a good note, African startups will receive over $7 billion in 2022.

These funds saw the birth of startups such as Kudi, Jumia and Flutterwave. With the success of these startups, more companies, both locally and internationally, provide funding opportunities to entrepreneurs with exceptional business ideas.

What to know about Madica

Madica was launched today to reduce entrepreneurs’ challenges in starting a business in Africa. With this aim, the venture company plans to invest $6 million in about 30 African startups. Each startup will receive $200,000 in exchange for equity. The first phase of investment will be for three years.

Apart from funding, the programme also aims to offer technological support and mentorship to underrepresented African startups. With this aim, the none specific sector targets technology startups at the pre-seed stage.

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As the programme offers immense opportunities, Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of the Africa Pre-seed Investment Program at Flourish Ventures, said, “Although investment is booming on the continent, funds are often disproportionately targeted at a few well-networked entrepreneurs and skewed towards the more prominent tech hubs.

This is why we have reserved an equal amount for programmatic support in addition to $6M of investment capital. We encourage founders across the continent to apply for our program. We believe Africans have an unmatched entrepreneurial spirit, and one of Madica’s core goals is to ensure a level playing field for every African founder”.

How to access part of the $6 million fund

One of the perks of this programme is that it is open all year round, and startups can apply whenever they are ready. To qualify for the fund, the startup must be full-time, have a minimum viable product, and have received little or no institutional funding.

To ensure that entrepreneurs get the best, Madica is partnering with organisations such as AfriLabs, Pariti, Africa Early Stage Investor Summit, CELO foundation, and Rising Tide. In mentoring, it is working with people such as Isis Nyong’o, the Asphalt & Ink partner; Ceviant Finance co-founder Idris Saliu and Wendy Hoffman, the Capital Legal Counsel at The Delta.

To this new development, Ameya Upadhyay, a partner at Flourish Ventures who also have a portfolio in Paga and Flutterwave, said, “Madica is an investment in the African venture ecosystem, with the audacious goal of creating a broader systemic shift.

Through Madica, we intend to develop a cadre of mentors, create world-class programming, crowd-in follow-on capital and leverage Flourish’s global presence to extend the reach of local networks. These will eventually benefit other participants in the ecosystem”.

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