AFRICA – Madica, a structured investment program designed for pre-seed stage startups in Africa, has announced its first investment in three startups.
Each startup has received an investment of up to US$200,000 and is now a part of Madica’s comprehensive investment program, which includes 18 months of dedicated company-building support tailored to the unique needs of each startup.
Madica delivers its support through a highly personalised curriculum, hands-on mentorship, invitations to fully-funded week-long founder immersion trips, executive coaching opportunities, and access to Madica’s global network of investors for follow-on funding—all designed to spur growth and ensure the long-term viability of the startups.
Launched in 2022 and affiliated with Flourish Ventures – a global Fintech venture capital, Madica is a sector-agnostic investment program designed to address structural gaps in Africa’s startup ecosystem.
The program tackles critical challenges such as limited access to capital, a scarcity of investors, insufficient mentorship, and the lack of structured support necessary for startups to resolve critical issues and foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation across the continent.
Madica’s first set of investments, selected from applications covering Africa, deliver tech-enabled solutions across growing and expanding verticals.
They include Kola Market (Ghana), which assists SMEs in enhancing sales, optimising inventory, and securing financing via a comprehensive B2B platform, GoBEBA (Kenya), which offers a direct-to-customer e-commerce platform that streamlines the purchase and delivery of bulky essential utilities and NewForm Foods (South Africa), that, enables food producers and retailers to rapidly develop and scale cultivated meat products at a cost well below industry standards.
“We’re excited to announce our first set of investments, which showcase the remarkable talent and innovation in the African tech ecosystem,” Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica, said.
“Each of these startups represents the untapped potential of African founders who lack the support they direly need because global investors too often perceive them as risky. This year, we aim to support more of these founders and integrate them into the global startup ecosystem.
“The glaring imbalance in venture funding in Africa is a big concern, and we want to support founders who investors often overlook. We aim to be a catalyst and inspire other investors to join our goal of broadening the reach of venture capital and founder mentorship.”
Madica employs an open application process, allowing founders to apply without an introduction.
The program collaborates with local ecosystem players, such as incubators, accelerators, and angel networks, to discover and support entrepreneurs.
All applicants undergo the same evaluation process, and investments are made on a rolling basis throughout the year. The program intends to invest in up to 10 additional startups this year.
Over the past year, Madica has also made significant investments in team capacity to deepen its support to founders.
In addition to Nairobi-based Brenda Wangari, who leads Portfolio Success, Madica has recently appointed Shamsa Mohamed, a Nairobi-based expert in startup and VC marketing and communications, as the Communications and Community Manager, and Francis Vesta, a Lagos-based investment professional and ex-founder, as an Investment Associate.
The Madica team, along with its board and network of mentors, brings tremendous domain and local operational expertise to help Madica founders scale their ventures.
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