Verod-Kepple Africa Partners, a pan-African venture capital firm, has reached the second close of its first fund, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures. The fund will invest in African startups at $43 million and aims to achieve a final close by the end of the year at $100 million. Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures is a joint venture between Verod Capital, a private equity firm, and Kepple Africa, a Tokyo-based venture capital firm.
Key points about Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures:
- Backed by Japanese investors
- Targeting African startups with $43 million, with an aim to reach $100 million
- A joint venture between Verod Capital and Kepple Africa
- Launched in 2022
- Invests in Series A and B startups across Africa
- The fund is sector agnostic
- The investment thesis is defined by three business types: infrastructure and platform-type, B2B efficiency, and lifestyle businesses facilitated by internet penetration
- Expects to deploy $100 million from 2022 to 2026
- Supports startups with $1.5 million to $3 million checks
- Synergy with Verod Capital to bring more tech into their portfolio companies as a PE fund, increasing efficiencies or productivity
Kepple Africa, a Tokyo-based venture capital firm, has been an active investor in African startups in recent years, with a particular interest in fintech, e-commerce, and logistics. Since its launch in 2018, Kepple Africa has backed more than 100 startups across 11 African markets, investing between $50,000 and $150,000 in the pre-seed and seed stages. It has been successful in linking its portfolio companies with Japanese strategic investors, with Japanese investors as limited partners who also directly invested in portfolio companies.
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Verod Capital has made two significant investments in tech ventures: Tangerine Life, a digital insurance provider it acquired before facilitating its merger with ARM Life, one of Nigeria’s most prominent insurance providers, and Daystar Power, a solar power solutions provider that exited to oil and gas multinational Shell last December. Providing operational support to take a growth-stage startup to exit and taking a hands-on approach is what portfolio startups in VKAV should expect from the PE firm. It also offers HR, legal finance, accounting, regulatory support, strategy, and ESG capabilities.
The fund’s limited partners, mainly Japanese institutional investors, include Toyota Tsusho Group, SBI, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (SMTB), some of which have invested in Kepple Africa’s portfolio companies Autochek and Lifestores.
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VKAV is trying to keep its VC mindset enclosed within PE bodies supported by the Verod resources. Its portfolio companies include Shuttlers, Julaya, Moove, NowPay, Chari, Ceviant, Nawy, and Koko Networks. It might double down on some of its top-performing startups from Kepple Africa if they fit into VKAV’s investment thesis. The aim is to invest in more mature startups with a proven track record and are looking to expand. The fund’s limited partners are interested in making more direct investments in the growth stages of these African startups and becoming co-investors in future rounds and potential acquirers of some startups.
Verod-Kepple Africa Partners Verod-Kepple Africa Partners
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