Japanese headquartered venture capital (VC) firm Samurai Incubate Africa has secured over $18-million ( Yen 2.026-billion) towards its second Africa fund from 54 corporate and individual investors.
Despite the challenges surrounding raising funding during a global pandemic, Samurai Incubate maintained its efforts to grow the fund and as a result, surpassing the total target amount of Yen 2-billion.
In an official press statement, Samurai Incubate explains that the funding will be used to support startups in Africa.
“We will accelerate investment in startups in Africa with the support of our LPs. Notably, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, who has diverse network across the continent and founded Mobility 54, a corporate venture capital (CVC) for Africa joined as one of our LPs.”
The VC company secured the investment from a range of professional investors with expertise in overseas investment, experience in founding startups, and growing a business in various sectors.
“We would like to offer opportunities of matching our portfolio companies with a certain LPs if there are needs by leveraging our LPs’ network, knowledge, and know-hows in order to support companies, ” explains Samurai Incubate.
The VC has broadened its focus to startups not only in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria but also in Egypt. Samurai Incubate has decided to increase the maximum investment amount made into selected startups to $739 228 (Yen 80-million) per deal in order to meet the needs of a wider range of companies.
The VC’s Africa fund has invested in the following startups; Eden Life, Evolve Credit, Shyft Power Solutions, FMG, Oneport, and Pricepally.
Samurai Incubate claims to have invested in 26 startups since July 2018.
