Verod-Kepple, a venture capital firm with an emphasis on Africa, has secured $43 million for a fund that will support entrepreneurs on the continent.
The fund was established by Verod-Kepple Africa Partners, a partnership between Verod Capital Management Ltd. and Kepple Africa Ventures, and is known as Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV).
VKAV, a 2022 startup that invests in scalable, tech-enabled, post-revenue companies tackling challenging issues across multiple industries on the continent. VKAV’s current investments include:
- Moove Africa (Multiple markets: smart vehicle finance for mobility entrepreneurs);
- NowPay (Egypt: financial wellness for employees);
- Koko Networks (Kenya: clean cooking technology company);
- Ceviant (Nigeria: treasury management and trade finance); Chari (Morocco: B2B e-commerce for FMCG);
- Shuttlers (Nigeria: Affordable and reliable shared mobility);
- Nawy (Egypt: end-to-end platform powering property transactions),
- Julaya (Francophone West Africa: neobank for businesses in Africa).
The introduction of the fund follows a tenacious 2022 in the African IT sector, where demand in venture capital in Africa increased by 8% despite the global financial crisis.
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Ory Okolloh, another VKAV partner said the funding shows “the confidence that our world-class set of investors have in our team and differentiated value creation strategy.”
Eric Idiahi, Investment Committee and Portfolio Review Committee Member at VKAV and Partner at Verod Capital commented said Verod has a “strong performance track record investing in West Africa for 15 years” and has a “history of returning capital to investors, provides a solid platform to showcase a unique model for venture capital in Africa that combines investment experience with hands-on support.”
The funding round was supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (SMTB). “We consider it as a critical step for us as a development development agency to integrate technology innovations and its fast-growing ecosystems into the broader arena of social and economic development in developing countries,” said JICA’s Senior Vice President Keiichiro Nakazawa.
Yasushi Anashige, Executive Manager and General Manager, Impact Equity Investment Department at SMTB believes the funds will help to make “significant successes not only in making financial returns but also bringing Japanese corporates to Africa.”
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VKAV says its work has impacted over 800,000 lives across nine countries, six of which are in Africa, and created more than 2,000 jobs.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard