Swedish Tech founders, executives and venture capitalists have committed finances to a new impact fund focused on supporting entrepreneurs in Africa. The $200 million equity growth fund targets African startups and has completed its first close at $110million. Dubbed Norskenn22, the fund is backed by 30 founders of startups that have achieved a pre-market valuation of at least $1Bn otherwise known as unicorns.
Norrsken22 seeks to be present during the growth-stage of startups that have a large potential of having huge impact which will enable startups to unlock significant partnerships to grow revenue as well as find the best talent and facilitate expansion plans across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
The unicorn founders will help founders of these African startups understand what it takes to bring their companies from incubation to becoming billion-dollar companies.
The thirty founders of unicorns who include, Olugbenga Agboola of Nigerian fintech unicorn Flutterwave, will put in $65m into the new fund. The fund will have offices located in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi. The search for potential first investments in these towns has already began.
The Norrsken22 African Tech Growth Fund is also being supported by a local advisory council board, which according to the partners, will help portfolio startups navigate business challenges across the continent better.
This announcement comes at a time when investments into the African technology startup ecosystem almost trebled over the course of a record breaking 2021 that saw total funding soar past the $2Bn mark for the first time. This is according to Disrupt Africa’s, African Tech Startups Funding Report. The report shows an incredible growth with Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa remaining the big four from a funding perspective. Nigeria continues to take the lead with a total of 161 startups raising a combined total of $800million.
