There are officially French-speaking countries in 21 of Africa’s 54 countries. Africa accounts for more than 70% of the world’s French-speaking population. However, it is unclear how healthy the startup ecosystem is. In the last three or more years, just around three sub-Saharan French-speaking African countries — Cameroon, Senegal, and Cote d’Ivoire — have been at the vanguard of all investment into the African startup ecosystem.

It is therefore critical to identify the investors behind investments in these nations in order to help entrepreneurs in these countries gain greater access to capital.

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Some of the investors and their investment patterns are presented below: 

S/N	NAME OF INVESTOR	HEADQUARTERS	FRANCOPHONE COUNTRY INVESTED IN	YEAR OF INVESTMENT	NOTABLE STARTUPS INVESTED INTO	SECTORS/STAGE OF FOCUS
1	Toyota Tsusho (Mobility54)	Japan	Senegal; Ivory Coast	2021;	Kai Senegal; InTouch; MojaRide	Mobility; Fintech
2	CFAO	France	Senegal	2021	Kai Senegal; InTouch	Mobility; Fintech
3	WIC Capital	Senegal	Senegal	2020; 2021	Les Ateliers de Corinne; Mburu; E-cover	Women-focused; foodtech; cleantech
4	Sequoia  Heritage (Sequoia)	USA	Senegal	2021	Wave	Fintech
5	Founders Fund	San Francisco, USA	Senegal	2021	Wave	Fintech
6	Stripe	California, USA	Senegal	2021	Wave	Fintech
7	Ribbit Capital	San Francisco, USA	Senegal	2021	Wave	Fintech
8	Partech Africa	Dakar, Senegal	Senegal	2021	Wave	Fintech
9	Angel investors: Sam Altman (ex-CEO Y Combinator; CEO OpenAI)	USA;	Senegal	2021	Wave	Fintech
10	USAID	USA	Senegal	2021	Club Tiosanne; Biosene	Ecommerce; cleantech;
11	MFS Africa Frontiers	South Africa	Ivory Coast; Cameroon	2021	Maviance; Julaya;	Fintech;
12	Orange Ventures	Paris, France; Dakar, Senegal	Ivory Coast	2021	Julaya	Fintech
13	Saviu Ventures	Paris, France	Ivory Coast	2018; 2020; 2021	Julaya; Afrikrea	Early stage (mostly French-speaking Africa) logistics, fashion ecommerce, HR, transport, fintech, etc
14	Launch Africa Ventures	Mauritius	Ivory Coast	2021	Julaya	Fintech
15	50 Capital Partners	Paris, France	Ivory Coast	2021	Julaya	Fintech
16	APICAP	Paris, France	Ivory Coast	2021	HUB2	Fintech
17	COMPASS	Ile de France	Ivory Coast	2021	HUB2	Fintech
18	BPI Reunion	Reunion	Ivory Coast	2021	HUB2	Fintech
19	Maroc Numeric Fund	Morocco	Morocco	2020; 2021	Damanesign; OnePay; Atlan Space; Yalla Xash; KoolSkools;	Morocco-based startups; Digital Trust; Fintech; edtech
20	SEAF Morocco Growth Fund	Morocco	Morocco	2016	SOS Credit IMMO;	Fintech
21	The Lundin Foundation	Vancouver, Canada	Cameroon	2021	Diool	Fintech
22	Seedstars	Switzerland	Cameroon	2018	Diool	Fintech
23	MAIF Avenir Fund	Niort, France	Tunisia	2021	Expensya	Spend management
24	Silicon Badia	Aman, Jordan	Tunisia	2021	Expensya	Spend management
25	ISAI	Paris, France	Tunisia	2018	Expensya	Spend management
26	Seventure	Paris, France	Tunisia	2018	Expensya	Spend management
27	Emerging Markets Property Group	Morocco	Morocco	2021	Mubawab	Proptech
28	Maxula Seed Fund	Tunis, Tunisia	Tunisia	2021	Moome	Seed
29	AfricInvest	Tunisia	Tunisia	2019	Instadeep	Entreprise; Agritech; Investments
30	Investisseurs & Partenaires	Paris; Burkina Faso; Cameroon, French-speaking Africa.	Cameroon; Senegal; Ivory Coast, Mali	2017	StarNews; PEG Africa; CoinAfrique;	Impact investing
31	Energy Access Ventures	Paris, France	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2017; 2020	PEG Africa; SolarX; SunCulture	Off-grid/energy; impact investing.
32	Acumen Capital Partners	Paris, France	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2017	PEG Africa; SunCulture	Energy/Off-grid, impact investing
33	Blue Heaven Initiative	Massachusetts, United States	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2017	PEG Africa	Impact investing; Off-grid/energy
34	ENGIE Rassembleurs d’Energies	Paris, France	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2017	PEG Africa	Impact investing, energy, early growth stage, late growth Stage
35	PCG Investments	Loosdrecht, Netherlands	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2017	PEG Africa	Impact investing; Off-grid/energy; fintech
36	Y Combinator	USA	Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal	2015; 2020; 2021	Oolu; Djamo; Freterium	Early stage
37	Groupe Cofina	Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea-Conakry, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon and Senegal.	Gabon	2020	Ogooue Labs	Mesofinance
38	500 Startups	USA	Tunisia	2019	Dabchy	Early stage; ecommerce
39	Daal VC	Dubai, UAE	Tunisia	2019	Dabchy	Early stage, North Africa, ecommerce
40	Wamda Capital	Dubai, UAE	Tunisia	2020	GoMyCode	Multi stage, agnostic, North Africa, Africa
41	Jasminium Capital	Tunisia	Tunisia	2020	GoMyCode	Early stage, Tunisia, edtech, etc
42	Meninx Holding	Tunisia	Tunisia	2020	GoMyCode	Early stage; edtech
43	Anava Seed Fund	Tunisia	Tunisia	2020	GoMyCode	Early stage; edtech
44	Social Venture Fund (Global Partnerships)	USA	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2017	PEG Africa	Impact investing
45	ResponsAbility	Switzerland	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2017	PEG Africa	Impact investing
46	CDC Group	UK	Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali	2019; 2020	PEG Africa; SolarX	Multi stage, debt, equity.
47	Endeavour Catalyst	USA	Tunisia	2019	InstaDeep	Investment only in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs
48	Digital Horizon	London, UK	Cameroon	2020	Healthlane	Early stage, enterprise software, fintech, edtech, ecommerce, healthtech
49	Silicon Valley Bank	Silicon Valley, USA	Cameroon	2020	Healthlane	Early stage
50	TSVC (formerly TEEC Angel Fund)	Silicon Valley, USA	Cameroon	2020	Healthlane	Early stage
51	Supernode Ventures	New York, USA	Cameroon	2020	Healthlane	Early stage
52	Capitoria	Cayman Islands	Cameroon	2020	Healthlane	Early stage, fintech, ecommerce, healthtech, biotech
53	Ping An Good Doctor	China	Cameroon	2020	Healthlane	Health-tech
54	VC4A	Netherlands	Togo; Ivory Coast	2020	Afrikrea; Gozem	Early stage
55	Capsa Capital Partners	Tunisia	Tunisia	2018; 2020	Enova Robotics; Intigo	Early stage, Tunisia, transport, robotics
56	Blue Ocean Partners	Paris, France	Tunisia	2020	NextProtein	Early stage, cleantech
57	Telos Impact	Belgium	Tunisia	2020	NextProtein	Early stage, Impact investing, cleantech
58	Raise Impact	France	Tunisia	2020	NextProtein	Impact investing
59	Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund (Mirova)	UK	Tunisia	2020	NextProtein	ESG investing, Seed, Series A, Series B.
60	Aucfan Incubate Inc.	Japan	Tunisia	2020	NextProtein	Early stage, AI, fintech, etc
61	Kima Ventures	Paris, France	Tunisia	2020	NextProtein	Early stage
62	Showroomprive	France	Ivory Coast	2020	Afrikrea	Ecommerce
63	iD4 Ventures	Paris, France	Ivory Coast	2020	Afrikrea	Early stage
64	Persistent Energy	Zurich, Switzerland	Cameroon	2019	upOwa	Growth, fintech, energy, impact investing
65	LITA.co	Paris, France	Cameroon	2019	upOwa	Impact investing, energy, environment, ESG
66	Colam Impact	Paris, France	Cameroon	2019	upOwa	impact investing, ESG, energy, family office
67	Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP)	UK	Cameroon	2019	upOwa	Energy/Off-grid solar
68	Tell Venture Automotive	Dubai, UAE	Algeria	2019	TemTem	Mobility, investment
69	Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFI)	EU	Cameroon; Senegal; Ivory Coast, Mali; Benin	2019	PEG Africa; MyJouleBox	Off-grid/Renewables
70	UNCOVERED Fund	Japan	Togo	2021	Gozem	Early stage; mobility
71	Expert Dojo	California, USA	Cameroon	2021	StarNews	Pre-seed; Seed
72	Dream Project Incubators (DPI)	Singapore	Senegal; Togo; Cote D’ivoire	2021	Sunculture	Develops and invests in renewable energy projects
73	Orange Ventures	Paris, France; Dakar, Senegal	Morocco; Tunisia; Ivory Coast; Cameroon; Senegal	2021	Dabchy; Chari.ma; MojaRide; Waspito; Sudpay	Early stage
74	Mediterrania Capital Partners	Malta; Morocco; Algeria; Ivory Coast	Tunisia; Ivory Coast	2021	Cofina Group	Private Equity
75	Crowdcube	UK	Togo; Cameroon	2020	MPower	Crowdfunding; Resident of the UK.
76	Proparco	France	Congo; Cameroon; Morocco	2020; 2021	Nuru; Humania	Impact investing
77	IFC	US	Morocco	2020	Humania	Multi-stage investing
78	CDG Invest	Morocco	Morocco	2021	LYNKO; Lacaisse.ma; Saweblia; GOAcommerce; Kifal Auto; Invyad, Weego and Freterium	Early stage; Invests through 212Founders;  invests in Moroccan startups
79	Witamax One (Owned by Southbridge A&I and AXXAM Family Office)	Morocco	Morocco	2021	Kezakoo; DataPathology; Konta	Early stage; invests in Moroccan startups
80	Azur Innovation Fund	Morocco	Morocco	2021	Epicerie Verte	Early stage; invests in Moroccan startups
81	INNOV INVEST Fund	Morocco	Morocco	2021	“Hob Feel Good”	Early stage; invests in Moroccan startups
82	Dislog Group	Morocco	Morocco	2020	–	Logistics startup
83	Greentec Partners	Frankfurt, Germany	Ivory Coast; Cameroon	2020	Coliba; Freshbag	Cleantech; Early stage
84	Hseven	Morocco	Morocco	2020	–	Debt financing; Early stage.
85	Outlierz Ventures	Morocco	Morocco; Cameroon	2020	Waystocap; Healthlane	Early stage; healthcare; retail logistics.
86	Algeria Startup Fund	Algeria	Algeria	2021	–	Early stage
87	Newfund Capital	Paris, France	Mali; Uganda	2021	Oko Finance	Early stage
88	Mercy Corps Ventures	USA	Mali	2021	Oko Finance	Impact investing
89	Techstars	Colorado, USA	Mali	2021	Oko Finance	Early stage
90	ImpactAssets	Maryland, USA	Mali	2021	Oko Finance	Syndicate investments
91	RaSa	San Francisco, USA	Mali	2021	Oko Finance	AI
90	Atlantica Ventures	Washington, USA	Morocco	–	WaystoCap	Early stage
91	INCO	Ile De France	Cameroon	2019	upOwa	Impact investing
92	Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP)- UK Gov-funded	UK	Cameroon	2019	upOwa	Energy
93	Gaia Impact Fund	France	Cameroon	2019	upOwa	Impact investing

Investment Patterns

Anchoring In Anglophone Countries

The continued preference for early stage enterprises that anchor their operations in English-speaking Africa while targeting the francophone areas is one pattern connected with investments in the francophone Africa startup ecosystem.

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This is especially the case, for instance, of PEG Africa, a solar energy startup that is headquartered in Accra, Ghana. Although Ghana is the company’s major area of operations, the startup has strong presence in Cote d’ivoire, Senegal and Mali. 

Even Cameroon’s Healthlane maintains its headquarters in San Jose, California, United States, further creating doubts as to whether a startup fully structured, both legally and operationally, in a Francophone African country can secure sizeable investments from investors increasingly targeting the continent’s booming startup ecosystem. 

This trend is however different if the investing firm is located locally in the countries. This is the case of Senegal’s WIC Capital which targets women entrepreneurs from French-speaking West African countries; Morocco’s CDG Invest; Partech Africa which maintains a branch in Dakar in Senegal and has gone on to invest in local startups such as Wave, among others.  

Large Presence Of Expat Founders

The strong presence of foreign founders is another key early stage investment pattern in Francophone African countries. Indeed, with the exception of French-speaking North Africa, investments in Sub-Saharan French-speaking African countries have largely gone to startups started or co-founded by expats.

A notable story in this dimension is that of MyJouleBox, which has been operational in the Republic of Benin since its launch in 2016. The solar energy startup founded by a Beninois Léonide Michael Sinsin, and a French man Paul Berthomieu, represents the reality of raising startup funds in cash-starved Benin.

The startup recently secured $1.8m from Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFi), a European Union initiative supporting investments in electrification. Investment from ElectriFi is a lone one in a long time for a country which does not feature frequently on African startup funding lists. 

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MyBouleBox is one story out of many. Notable startup founders/co-founders , including those of Gozem, upOwa, Oko Finance, Julaya, Hub2, all have foreign backgrounds. 

The degree of investments going to startups founded by expatriates, therefore, increases if the investing firm is not located locally in any of the Francophone African countries. 

Again, in most cases, startups founded by local founders secure funding relatively easily from investors if their backgrounds, such as previous experiences, education, etc., have a foreign touch. 

More Preference For Fintechs And Off-grid Energy Over Others

It appears as though there aren’t other sectors attracting the attention of investors targeting startups in Francophone Africa, apart from fintech and renewable energies. Investments in other sectors such health-tech, edutech, etc., are few and scattered. 

More Presence Of France-based Investors

A majority of investors in French-speaking African countries also have their headquarters in France. 

Francophone African startups investors Francophone African startups investors Francophone African startups investors Francophone African startups investors Francophone African startups investors

Why Startup Ecosystem in Africa’s French-Speaking Countries Is The Least Funded In Africa

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