Founder Institute (FI), the pre-seed startup accelerator has announced Pacer Ventures as ‘Investor in Residence’ for the Founder Institute’s African Accelerator program.

Pacer Ventures which recently launched a $3m fund for startups in Africa will now review all startups that graduate from the Founder Institute in Africa and possibly invest in them.

“FI is quickly becoming the gold standard for pre-seed acceleration in Africa,” says Ryan Micheletti, Head of Global Operations for the Founder Institute. “We are excited to strengthen our leadership position by partnering with Pacer Ventures to foster investment in FI Alumni all across the Continent.”

This development follows the announcement of Founder Institute as a strategic partner of Pacer Ventures for African early-stage start-ups that are solving some of the most critical problems on the continent. Pacer VC’s purpose is aligned with FI’s mission to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful, technology-enabled companies worldwide.

FI has an Alumni strength of 100+ companies tackling various challenges across the continent and this is bound to grow with FI’s expanded footprint in Africa and Pacer’s move to increase access to early-stage funding.

Managing Partner of Pacer Ventures, Gbemi Akande, sees value in formalizing the partnership with the Silicon Valley based program. “Our partnership is in line with what Pacer VC was set up to accomplish. By partnering with Founder Institute, we at Pacer VC will accelerate our mission of supporting early stage companies. It is a win-win and we look forward to a mutually beneficial collaboration with FI.”

Geoffrey Weli-Wosu, General Partner at Pacer Ventures, said, “Founder Institute stands out as one of the top pre-seed accelerators across the African continent. Pacer Ventures is committed to supporting startups coming out of the program who can support the transformation of the continent.”

Pacer Ventures will continue to leverage its strategic partnership with Founder Institute chapters throughout Africa to identify and recommend winning teams with scalable solutions that meet market needs. Similarly, Pacer Ventures has partnered with techbuild.africa to provide marketing and promotional support for FI portfolio companies across Africa.

General Partner at Pacer Ventures and FI Regional Director, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata stated, “Africa faces many challenges, but within every challenge lies opportunity and young people are leveraging technology to solve these problems across the Continent. It is our duty to inspire and fund the entrepreneurs who are building valuable solutions to our most pressing problems. Africa is the future, and investors and LPs are now becoming aware of this.”

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