Kepple Africa Ventures - Afrikan Heroes

Japan’s JICA Invests In Verod-Kepple Africa Partners To Fund African Startups

March 22, 2023

An investment agreement was struck by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures SCSp (VKAV Fund), which is run by Verod-Kepple Africa Partners (VKAP). Through its investment, JICA will support new businesses that develop cutting-edge solutions to societal problems in Africa, including those related to climate change, healthcare, and financial inclusion.

In 2021, Kepple Africa Ventures (KAV), a Japanese venture capital firm, and Verod Holdings (Verod), an African growth capital private equity firm, founded VKAP as a joint venture. Verod has been investing in growth-stage firms through three active funds, mostly in Nigeria and Ghana, while KAV has been investing in early-stage enterprises across all of Africa. With a team that combines the best of Japanese and African expertise, local market knowledge and networks, and a hands-on approach to value creation and impact, Mr. Satoshi Shinada, Mr. Ryosuke Yamawaki, and Ms. Ory Okolloh are now in charge of VKAV.

The VKAV Fund will use the combined expertise of the two businesses to invest in early-stage businesses throughout Africa that are trying to address social issues on the continent. The investment will support start-up companies seeking to solve social problems in Africa through the venture capital fund and will contribute to SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Goals 8 (Decent work and economic growth), 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure), and 17 (Partnerships for the goals).

With Project NINJA (Next Innovation with Japan) and Home Grown Solutions (HGS) via the African Union Development Agency, JICA has been assisting seed-stage start-ups in Africa. Nevertheless, this investment would broaden JICA’s help to include funding for start-ups in the early stages, and it is anticipated that this will improve cooperation between Japanese businesses and start-ups in Africa. JICA will continue to assist funds and start-up businesses that are attempting to address social issues in developing nations all over the world, not just in Africa.

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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

Kepple Africa Ventures Has Made Great Impacts on Early-Stage African Tech Startups

May 29, 2020

When the roll call of some of the most industrious tech focused venture capitalists in Africa will be taken, one name will be among the tops for being far more active that than others in ensuring that budding start-ups receive the necessary oxygen needed to bloom. The Japanese company Kepple Africa Ventures has set an outstanding record across the continent of Africa, having invested in more than 50 African tech startups – with 20 of those deals done in 2020 alone. Founded in 2018 by two young Japanese, Ryosuke Yamawaki and Takahiro Kanzaki, Kepple Africa Ventures has offices in Nairobi and Lagos and makes seed investments of between US$50,000 and US$150,000 in early-stage tech startups on the continent.

Since starting out, the seed-stage VC firm has made 52 investments, averaging US$100,000 each, in companies from Kenya, Nigeria and five other African countries, with 20 of those investments having been done in the first five months of this year. Kepple has been most active in Nigeria in 2020, investing in credit service Indicina, real estate platform Seso Global, logistics startup MVXchange, educational finance platform Schoolable, e-health startup Lifestores, training and recruitment company Decagon, commodities platform TradeBuza, marketing service Termii, and investtech platform Bamboo.

In Kenya, the company has funded vehicle manufacturer Mobius Motors, health platform Connect Afya, connectivity startup Koko Networks, music platform Mdundo, commerce platform Sky.Garden, digital counselling service Wazi, and payments platform Boya, while also added to its portfolio in 2020 were two Ghanaian companies – digital banking platform Boost and agri-tech startup Complete Farmer.

The rest of the list is completed by Cameroonian e-health startup Health Lane, the fully distributed but Africa-focused USSD integration platform Hover, and France-based, Tunisia-focused insect-based protein producer NextProtein. Yamawaki told Disrupt Africa the fund prided itself on being able to move extremely quickly. “Our due diligence is exceptionally quick compared with other VCs. We’ve completed some of our deals within two weeks from end to end,” he said.

Tech-focused but sector agnostic, and primarily focused on East and West Africa, Kepple is primarily focused on seed-stage opportunities. However, it does sometimes go in on bigger rounds, as in the case of Kenyan Logistics Company Sendy, whom it helped raise cash from Japanese investors like Yamaha and therefore gained a chance to contribute to its recent bumper investment. In general, Kepple, whose LPs are mostly Japanese high net worth individuals, helps link the African and Japanese startup ecosystems, and helps its portfolio companies access follow-on funding.

“We do something we call “Gateway to Japan”, where we arrange a trip to Tokyo and set up meetings with top-notch Japanese corporate investors,” Yamawaki said. There are further benefits to portfolio companies to being part of the large Kepple stable. “We actively connect startups in our portfolio for knowledge sharing and business partnerships,” Yamawaki said. “We also run a WhatsApp group for all our portfolio companies, which serves as a robust mutual Q&A platform. Given the size of our portfolio, the community value we provide is unparallelled.”

Yamawaki said the Kepple fund has grown to US$13 million in size since its launch, and that it plans to continue making investments during the COVID-19 crisis while also helping its existing portfolio navigate the “new normal”. He says the African tech startup space is a very exciting one to be active in, combining robust macro economic trends with innumerable pain points that are yet to be solved and a large talent pool. “Missing is only money. We fill this gap and take this great opportunity,” he said.

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