Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a pan-African venture capital firm, has marked the final close of its $60 million maiden fund to invest in growth-stage startups in the continent.
The Lagos-headquartered VC firm, a joint venture between Japanese VC firm Kepple Africa Ventures and African growth capital private equity firm Verod Holdings, aims to provide capital to scalable, tech-enabled, post-revenue startups.
The fund reached the final close after securing commitments from new limited partners, including Nigeria’s SCM Capital, formerly known as Sterling Capital Markets Ltd, and a few institutional investors from Japan, including Taiyo Holdings and C2C Global Education Japan.
Other key investors in the fund include SBI Holdings, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), and Japan ICT Fund.
The fund aims to fill the funding gap for companies moving to Series A and Series B investment stages, as local capital for such companies remains limited. The fund will focus on three main themes—digital infrastructure, inefficiency solvers, and market creators.
"This support is more critical than ever as companies work to navigate the complex macroeconomic environment in Africa and look to expand to other markets globally," said VKAV in a press release.
It has already invested in 12 companies, including mobility fintech company Moove Africa, KOKO Networks, Ceviant, Chari, Shuttlers, Nawy, Julaya, NowPay, Chefaa, Cloudline, Zone, and mTek-Services.
The fund aims to back companies that provide solutions for the African economy, including building digital infrastructure across different sectors, companies targeting shifts in consumer trends, and companies creating economic opportunities for people, based on the changing dynamics of the overall African economy and demographics.
VKAV managed the final close about a year after its first close of $43 million in March 2023.
Led by partners Satoshi Shinada, Ryosuke Yamawaki, and Ory Okolloh, VKAF was launched in 2022 as a joint venture between Verod Capital Management and Kepple Africa Ventures. Verod is a West African private equity firm investing in mid-sized enterprises across sectors. Kepple Africa Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm.