Investments are continuing to pour in for African tech entrepreneurs.
TechCrunch reports that Founders Factory Africa (FFA), an early-stage investment firm, has raised $114 million “to scale its model to better serve founders across the African tech ecosystem.” The funding for the South Africa-based accelerator was led by Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson.
FFA is co-founded by Roo Rogers and Alina Truhina, and Bongani Sithole leads as CEO. The outlet details that the firm teams up with corporate and impact investors to run its model through programs. In addition, it gives access of up to $250,000 in equity capital to startups at their idea, pre-seed, and seed stages, and $150,000 in non-dilutive funding to portfolio companies.
“Typical fund structures mean that when investors raise a fund, they’ll have to deliver on it, close it, and start a new one,” Sithole told the outlet. “How we’ve structured FFA and our partnerships with our LPs is one of a continuous relationship.”
He continued, “And the reason for that is twofold. The integration of corporates and startups is very critical to the African continent. So, from that perspective, that gives us two things. One is access to capital to further our mission, and second, our startups can continue to integrate and leverage the assets held by corporates in the African continent.”
While the new funding is set to go toward investing in African founders and their startups, it will also aid FFA in hiring new talent, strengthening its support structure, and building out IP.
“As we figure out how to deploy this capital, catalytic in this context also means you can invest $1 and the startup can deliver $2 worth of value,” Truhina explained. “That’s what we’re looking to do, seeking ways to help these founders access different types of capital to provide double, triple and quadruple that value.”
