By Cynthia Ezekwe
Egypt-based seed-stage accelerator and early stage venture capital (VC) firm,Flat6Labs has unveiled a $95 million Africa seed fund fund to support startups in East and West Africa, marking its first expansion outside the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
A statement by the firm said the $95 million Africa Seed Fund (ASF) is sector agnostic and plans to invest in fintechs, health tech, logistics, mobility, clean tech, agtech, retail and e-commerce startups. With the new programme, the accelerator hopes to be part of the support that startups across Africa need, especially in the wake of a tough fundraising environment.
The firm also disclosed that through the ASF, Flat6Labs will admit 10 to 15 startups every six months in its seed programme, with a goal to back over 170 startups in the next five years, adding that the capital from the ASF has the potential to create more than 14,000 jobs, provide support to more than 1,200 founders with 20 per cent female participation, and generate revenue of more than $700 million.
According to the firm, the first investments in the selected startups are planned to be made before the end of 2023 and will include Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon.
Speaking on the startup fund, Ramez El-Serafy, the CEO of Flat6Labs, said the firm is embarking on a new phase by expanding into sub-Saharan Africa through Africa Seed Fund. He added that the expansion will be gradual, with two-thirds of its allocations still going to enterprises in North Africa.
El-Serafy further expressed his delight over the launch, stating that Africa is one of the most exciting regions to invest in tech and innovation, with huge untapped potential and unique business opportunities, while noting that the firm will leverage its experience and knowledge to guide the startup founders to create truly scalable, investment-ready, Africa-based companies.
Dina El-Shenoufy, Flat6Labs chief information officer (CIO), said,”With markets across the region maturing a little bit, it makes sense that we start looking at cohesive regions in terms of the average purchasing power, and opportunities — the products that you see being created in these markets are very similar and easy to take from one country to the next.’’
ASF is funded by Flat6Labs with the support of the GIZ on behalf of the German Government, and through the Egyptian Agricultural Innovation Project (AIP) and Scaling Digital Agricultural Innovations through Startups project (SAIS).
