Flourish Ventures launches Africa-focused pre-seed investment platform
Flourish Ventures, a global venture capital firm investing in fintech entrepreneurs, announced the launch of affiliate Madica, a structured investment programme for pre-seed stage technology companies in Africa. The new sector-agnostic programme will invest capital in tech start-ups and offer founders tailored mentorship and company-building support. Over the next three years, Madica, seeks to back 25-30 African entrepreneurs with up to $200,000 each.
The new investment programme aims to address systemic challenges faced by early-stage founders in Africa, such as limited access to capital, industry networks, mentorship, and structured training. A central element of the programme will be a carefully curated panel of seasoned African operators who will mentor Madica founders. Based on the belief that strong mentorship is a central feature of the most vibrant startup ecosystems, Madica will provide this mentor community with rewards tied to company success. To further cultivate this sense of community, Madica intends to share a part of its financial returns with the broader ecosystem. In pioneering some of these unique features in an investment programme, Madica hopes to promote a vibrant and more equitable funding environment on the continent.
”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,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, head of Madica. ”Unlike other programmes, Madica is sector-agnostic and intends to double down on providing hands-on support, extensive resources, access to networks and more. This is why, in addition to $6 million of investment capital, we have reserved an equal amount for programmatic support.”
To be eligible for the programme, start-ups must:
– Have a minimum viable product (MVP)
– Have founder(s) who are engaged full time
– Have received little or no institutional funding