EMURGO Africa, an Africa-focused subsidiary of EMURGO Middle East & Africa (“EMURGO MEA”), and Kepple Africa Ventures Inc. (“Kepple”), a pan-African venture capital firm, have announced the formation of EMURGO Kepple Ventures to accelerate its strategic partnership investing in African Web3 businesses.

In September 2022, EMURGO Africa and Kepple struck an agreement to jointly push Web3 investment prospects in Africa, including token investments. Notwithstanding recent hurdles such as the crypto winter and regulatory setbacks, EMURGO Kepple Ventures thinks that blockchain-based solutions have a long-term fundamental need in Africa.

While cryptocurrencies have seen widespread acceptance, busy trading on multiple crypto exchanges, and rising money transfer services via stablecoins, entrepreneurs in Africa are already developing numerous real-world use cases leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts.

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In many African countries, for example, land title register has not been successfully working under the present centralised structure. This has been a substantial impediment to the expansion of the real estate and property markets. Web3 startups are developing decentralised registry systems to enable transparent and irreversible transactions. Crop insurance is another Web3 application. With the present insurance system, trigger events such as flooding or droughts must be manually validated, resulting in inaccuracies and delays in processing insurance claims. Payouts to farmers may now be automated using smart contracts in conjunction with satellite, climate, and ecological data.

EMURGO Kepple Ventures’ objective is to make the world a better place by providing companies and individuals with a more transparent and efficient system supported by goods and services based on blockchain-based Web3 technology. EMURGO Kepple Ventures wants to expedite this shift by increasing collaboration and synergies between Web2 and Web3 firms, as well as stimulating funding flow from traditional corporations and financial institutions to African Web3 startups.

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Yosuke Yoshida, who now serves as co-CEO of EMURGO MEA, will be in charge of EMURGO Kepple Ventures. As the manager of Japan’s largest investment company in the power sector and the former CEO of EMURGO Japan, where EMURGO was first founded, Yoshida brings nearly 20 years of professional experience in M&A and cross-border trading. He has also led numerous international and government projects in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Aoi Narita, a venture capitalist with two years of experience working with African entrepreneurs, will hold the position of director. She worked as an analyst at Accenture before joining EMURGO Kepple Ventures, where she was in charge of putting the ERP system into place.

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