Atlantica Ventures - Afrikan Heroes

Atlantica Ventures Secures $50m Commitments To Invest In African Startups

February 25, 2022

Atlantica Ventures is the latest African investment partner to benefit from the Boost Africa initiative. Venture capital investment in innovative and technology driven companies across Africa will be enhanced by over USD 11.3 million (c. EUR 10m) in junior capital from Boost Africa and USD 12.5m (c. EUR 11m) in senior capital European Investment Bank backing for start-up fund Atlantica.

Ik Kanu, co-founder of Atlantica Ventures.

“Atlantica Ventures is delighted to announce that it reached over USD 50 million in commitments, anchored by EIB and Boost Africa. We will continue engaging further investors till final close. We believe that the start-up ecosystem benefits from venture capital funds that are dedicated to Africa and can contribute their know-how and experience to support the growth of start-ups. Such funds benefit from investors that have a belief not only in the fund managers but also in the potential of the market. EIB and Boost Africa have demonstrated that belief by their support of Atlantica Ventures, and we look forward to the partnership and joint effort to transform and uplift the African tech ecosystem.” Said Ik Kanu, co-founder of Atlantica Ventures.

“The European Investment Bank is committed to improving access to finance by innovative companies across Africa and around the world. The EIB’s new partnership with Atlantica Ventures will scale up specialist financing for technology and technology-enabled companies across Africa to ensure that technology can contribute to delivering inclusive and sustainable growth.” Said Thomas Östros, European Investment Bank Vice President.

Unlocking innovation driven economic growth across Africa

Africa’s rapidly urbanizing, young, and mostly online and mobile-first population is bolstering demand for tech and tech enabled goods and services. As a result, the continent has witnessed the exponential growth of startups that are ready to tackle complex local problems that address the growing need and demand from this new wave of consumers as well as help reduce or eliminate existing inefficiencies and gaps that have held back African countries from reaching their full potential. This tech ecosystem growth has been supported by venture capital funding which reached an all-time high in 2021 — estimated between USD 4.5–6.0bn — from local venture capital investors and increasingly from global capital allocators.

Partnering with tech investment experts

Aniko Szigetvari and Ik Kanu founded Atlantica Ventures, an early-stage pan-African impact focused venture capital fund, with the belief that Africa’s and the world’s problems can and will be solved by African entrepreneurs channelling their passion and skills through technology.

Atlantica Ventures operates at the intersection of innovative business models and technology to generate financial returns and positive impact. Atlantica Ventures supports founders who solve problems through the use of technology to unlock economic potential and opportunities for their customers and other stakeholders.

To date, Atlantica Ventures has invested in Sabi (Sabi.am), OnePipe (onepipe.com), Sendy (sendy.it) and Curacel (curacel.co), to name a few; all companies whose founders have created sustainable and scalable business models to increase financial inclusion and/or to bring the informal workforce into the formal economy to improve their economic well-being.

Aniko and Ik have a combined 35 years of investment and operational experience in technology in Africa, supporting companies from the earliest stages of development to IPO. The global perspective, a hands-on and data driver approach employed by Aniko and Ik lends Atlantica Ventures the ability to look around the corner and develop a thesis before mainstream adoption occurs.

As a majority female owned and managed fund, Atlantica Ventures also aims to contribute to the development of the larger ecosystem by fostering the growth of the next generation of female technology investors.

Boost Africa transforming entrepreneurial investment across Africa

Jointly developed by the EIB and the African Development Bank (AfDB) with financial support from the European Commission and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States Secretariat (OACPS), Boost Africa aims at unleashing the entrepreneurial potential of African youth through investment by venture capital funds.

The initiative specifically targets 5 main objectives:

boost entrepreneurship and innovation,
create new and quality jobs,
develop an efficient entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa,
address financing gaps at the earliest and riskiest stages of business creation
and develop young entrepreneurs’ skills and expertise.

The new pan-African start-up financing cooperation was confirmed in Brussels ahead of the EU-Africa Summit.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer

Atlantica Ventures Raises $50m for Seed-Onwards Tech Investments in Africa

April 21, 2021

Leading Africa-focused venture capital (VC) firm Atlantica Ventures has raised a US$50 million fund that will invest in tech and tech-enabled businesses from seed stage onwards.

Atlantica Ventures which was founded in 2019 by Aniko Szigetvari and Ik Kanu, who have previously worked for the likes of IFC, Helios and Convergence and have extensive angel investing experience, Atlantica Ventures counts among its portfolio the likes of Paystack, recently acquired by Stripe, and Sendy.

Aniko Szigetvari, cofounder, Atlantica Ventures

With this new US$50 million pan-African VC fund, it has already invested in Nigerian startups Curacel and OnePipe, is financed by development financial institutions, a US fund of funds, and various high net worth individuals, and will invest in tech and tech-enabled businesses at seed stage.

Primary target markets are Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Tanzania, which between them represent 60 percent of Africa’s GDP, while it is focused on fintech, logistics, agri-tech, digital security, IoT, and B2B marketplaces.

“These are significant contributors to the target markets’ GDPs and are interlinked, allowing for value chain/platform investing,” Kanu said. “These sectors also exhibit some recession fluidity, and are aligned with the future-of-work. COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of technology across our target markets, and these sectors have been pivotal to the economies.”

Atlantica Ventures encourages portfolio companies to work with each other to maximise value. Its African and global networks also facilitate these companies to scale faster to other markets and regions.

“We invest from seed to Series B rounds with a data-driven approach for investment opportunity evaluation and portfolio management. These startups are solving essential local problems and have demonstrated product market fit with the ability to scale globally,” Kanu was quoted as saying.

“Atlantica Ventures becomes a mentor and partner to the startup, not just an investor. The partners have deep experience in investing and supporting companies from early stage to growth, and also turnarounds. The support is not just from an investment standpoint, but also hands-on operational.”

Kanu said African entrepreneurs face “access” challenges – access to capital, access to markets, access to strategic partners, and access to knowledge – with access to capital and knowledge being at the forefront of these challenges.

“Atlantica Ventures partners have relationships with global investors, sector players in other markets (small to large), and development financial institutions to help solve these access challenges. Being able to provide knowledge access to advisors and comparable companies in non-competing markets helps entrepreneurs build for global scale and avoid typical pitfalls that have stumped other founders,” he said.

Often, the problems African entrepreneurs solve are present in other emerging, and even developed, markets.

“To compete and penetrate outside the core market, the product-market-channel fit needs to be evaluated and complimented as necessary. For example, the process flows in a particular market may need a new product feature, a new partnership will need to be established, and the route-to-market via different channels will need to be built,” said Kanu.

“The entrepreneur has to evaluate the company’s internal capabilities, determine what to enhance, and determine the right time to expand. We have seen and helped companies, such as Migo Money, in our portfolio expand to other countries and regions, and that is a key part of our growth strategy for the startups.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

The Global Extreme Tech Challenge Calls for Applications in Africa

March 26, 2021

Atlantica Ventures and EchoVC have partnered to launch the first XTC Africa, a new regional competition of Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), which is the largest global competition for entrepreneurs addressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through purposeful technology.

The XTC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit devoted to elevating the next generation of entrepreneurs creating new technologies and innovations to benefit humankind. Inspired by the UN’s 17 SDGs, the XTC supports and showcases the innovators harnessing the power of technology to address the greatest challenges facing humanity and the planet.

Through its global startup competition, XTC provides top contenders the potential for global visibility, the ability to raise capital, network with global entities, and gain mentorship opportunities they need to pioneer technological breakthroughs and help power a sustainable future.

The XTC competition is open to all product or service submissions based on a new technology or an innovative application of an existing technology built by the submitting company that has the potential to address one of XTC’s Tech for Good categories.

Competitors will submit their startup in one of 7 categories that bundle the UN SDGs, namely Agri-tech, food and water; Cleantech and Energy; Education; Enabling Technologies; Fintech; Healthcare; and Transportation and smart cities. There is also a Female Founder Award, and a COVID-19 Innovation Award.

Applications are open until April 2. Finalists will be announced by the beginning of May, and invited to participate in the XTC virtual bootcamp and final judging for the category winners. Category winners will be invited to pitch at the 2021 Global Finals at VivaTech in Paris in June, where the winners will be announced.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry