Ventures Platform, a pan-African early-stage venture capital firm, has added four new African firms to its portfolio through its new fund.
This fund aims to locate, fund, and promote ground-breaking market-creating innovation prospects in order to boost Africa’s economy and position it as a worldwide market power.
The new portfolio businesses have developed innovative solutions to address critical societal issues such as unbanked people’s access to financial services, creating borderless trade opportunities for African merchants, allowing Africans to make digital payments without having access to the internet, and providing credit to middle-market African businesses.
The newest portfolio companies include:
Topup Mama – a restaurant management platform for African restaurateurs to unify and optimize the fragmented food and beverages supply chain. We invested in Topup Mama because the founder understood the problem deeply, having grown up as the son of a restaurant owner and experiencing the daily challenges and constraints to growth. The founders are ideally suited to disrupt this billion-dollar market. Restaurateurs can start shopping here.
Fluna – a B2B SaaS treasury management and financing platform leading the charge to close the $5 trillion total credit gap in developing and emerging economies. We believe the Fluna founders have a deep understanding of the barriers to private credit, and they are building a comprehensive product that enables African businesses to grow into and surpass their potential. Companies can get started here.
Shekel – a dealership management system that enables auto dealerships to access to financing, enabling millions of Africans to own vehicles. We invested in Shekel because it will redefine mobility as an accessible need for most Africans, and we are excited about how Shekel will evolve into a critical rail that underpins the urban mobility sector. Auto dealers can signup here to get started.
Catlog – a social commerce platform that enables merchants on social media platforms reach massive audiences with cutting-edge sales and marketing tools. We believe that social commerce is a strong contender for the dominant form of online commerce within highly dynamic African markets, and Catlog is well-positioned to unlock tremendous economic opportunity for millions of small business owners. Merchants can create a free store here.
These companies join the portfolio of six existing VP Fund IV investments in startups transforming how Africans access financial services through lowered barriers to banking services, innovative Point of Sale tools, mobile money agents, borderless trade, offline payments and card issuance APIs.
