Madica, an investment program launched by US investor Flourish Ventures to support pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 companies by the end of the year and ramp up its funding efforts after completing three initial deals.
Madica revealed the plans to TechCrunch, hinting at accelerated investments in the coming year as the company eyes up to 30 startups by the end of its three-year program, which began in the middle of last year, after launching in late 2022.
Among the program’s first investments announced today is Kola Market, a B2B platform founded by Marie-Reine Seshie to help SMEs increase their sales and simplify their business operations. Others include GoBEBA, a Kenyan on-demand home goods retailer founded by Lesley Mbogo and Peter Ndiang’ui, and Newform Foods (formerly Mzansi Meat), a South African cultured meat startup founded by Brett Thompson and Tasneem Karodia became.
More will join the program as Madica explores potential deals in emerging markets such as Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Ethiopia. This is in line with its plan to reach startups in diverse sectors and markets, as well as those led by underrepresented and underfunded founders. Madica is also looking beyond fintechs, the most funded sector in Africa, and is also interested in supporting startups founded by female founders (or where at least one founder is a woman), a demographic that continues to lack VC funding receives.
“I believe that given the multitude of challenges that exist across the continent, the entrepreneurs in these markets who understand the context and have experience of these issues will be best placed to solve these challenges.” The point of the Madica program is to actually prove and show that it is possible to find founders who build good companies but do not fit into the usual homogeneous group,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica.
Madica invests $200,000 upfront once a business is accepted into the program, which runs for up to 18 months and also includes tailored practical support and mentoring. $6 million was allocated to invest in scalable, technology-enabled businesses and an equal amount to implement the first phase of the program with rolling approval. The program does not have standard investment conditions, making each deal unique.
“On the one hand, our programs are very personalized, but on the other hand they are also structured in a certain way, as founders enter the program at different times. The personalized part of the program is crucial because we want to understand what they need and how we can best support them,” Adegboye said.
“But we also recognize that at any given time we will have at least a couple of companies that we are working with as part of the program, so we have some parts of the program that are very structured and extend to every company within of the portfolio,” he said.
Adegboye hopes that as the program catalyzes pre-seed stage investments in various ecosystems in Africa, Madica can attract more capital to the continent and ultimately serve as a reference for global VCs looking to expand their activities in the market.
“Depending on how the program goes, there is a possibility that we could double it or open it up to other partners to join us and accelerate this mission.”