FUNDING | Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures Secures $60 Million, Plans to Invest in 21 Growth-Stage African Companies

Pan-African VC, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), has announced the successful closure of its inaugural fund, with a total of $60 million from various investors.

According to reports, the VC plans to invest in 21 growth-stage companies following an addition of new investors including:

• Nigeria’s SCM Capital (formerly Sterling Capital Markets Limited)
• Taiyo Holdings and
• C2C Global Education Japan


According to Techcrunch, this close proceeds the fund’s first and second closures in 2022 and 2023, which saw investments from major Japanese institutional investors such as:

• SBI Holdings
• Toyota Tsusho Corporation
• Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank
• Japan International Corporation Agency
• the Japan ICT Fund

“Over the last few years, we have seen a growth in pre-seed and seed funds, and we felt there are not enough funds at the growth stage of investing to get these companies to the next level in terms of scale, exits or even being around as sustainable profitable businesses,” VKAV partner, Ory Okolloh, told TechCrunch.

“Our focus is Series A and B but we have the ability to go earlier to pre-Series A if we think it is a good opportunity. We think there’s still a need for more growth-stage capital with locally based investors,” she said.

The VC fund allocates investments ranging from $1 million to $3 million, with the capacity for follow-on investments. To date, it has already deployed $17.5 million, with an average investment of $1.5 million across 12 companies spanning:

• Nigeria
• Egypt
• Kenya
• Morocco
• Ivory Coast, and
• South Africa