Byld Ventures raises $15 million fund to back fintechs in Africa

Early-stage investment firm, Byld Ventures has announced its new close of $15 million fund launched in May 2022 to support fintechs in Africa. This comes after the fund reached its first close in June and its second close at $10 million in August. The fund is backed by the Dubai government and several other institutional investors.

The four-months-old fund has made four investments in African fintech startups such as Thepeer, Ceviant, Apata and Anchor.

Apart from the Founding and Managing Partner of the VC firm, Youcef Oudjidane, the team includes four other partners: CEO Telda, Ahmed Sabbah; CEO Dash, Prince Boampong; CEO Apata, Shekinah Adewumi – of whom three are founders of fintech platforms in Nigeria and Egypt – and Kieran Gibbs, a professional soccer player.

The fund will be directed towards 15 to 20 startups in Nigeria and Egypt where it has market experiences – on an average of $500,000 and a 50% of the fund for follow-on – while it targets markets in Ethiopia and Algeria.

Speaking with TechCrunch, the founder, Oudjidane stated that in the course of the past year, he offered advice to founders who reached out to him, also explaining that Africa is a potential billion market, hence, he set up the fund to be included in “day one” of fintech startups.

“Over the last 12 months, founders in Africa were reaching out to me for advice and I was investing personally,” he said. “So, I decided to institutionalize it and put a fund together.”

He further explained that fintechs in Africa may lack insights gained by Byld Ventures in the African fintech ecosystem. This would make his firm a priority and go-to for pre-seed checks.

“We build deep and personal bonds with founders, perhaps a by-product of us being open and vulnerable. For example, some founders are reluctant to seek counsel from investors when the proverbial shit hits the fan; chances are, we have gone through worse. We believe in the power of intellectual honesty and independent thinking to help reach the optimal decisions,” he added.