- Madica, an African-focused pre-seed investment programme, has revealed its investments in three African startups: Kola Market, GoBEBA, and NewForm Foods.
- This development comes as funding for African startups fell in 2023 to $3.5 billion after rising from $2 billion in 2019 to $6.5 billion in 2022.
- Each of the selected startups will receive up to $200,000 and join Madica’s investment programme, which offers 18 months of company-building support tailored to the needs of each startup.
Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica, while acknowledging the imbalance in venture funding in Africa, said that the programme is aimed at supporting founders who are often overlooked by investors.
“Each one of these startups represents the untapped potential of African founders who lack the support they direly need because they are too often perceived as risky by global investors. This year, our goal is to support more of these founders and integrate them into the global startup ecosystem,” he expressed.
Launched in 2022 with the support of Flourish Ventures, a venture capital firm based in the United States, Madica offers funding, technology assistance, and mentorship to underrepresented founders across the continent.
The programme addresses the challenges startups encounter in Africa, including limited access to capital, a scarcity of investors, insufficient mentorship, and the lack of structured support needed to resolve critical issues and promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation across Africa.
Kola Market is a Ghanaian-based B2B platform founded by Marie-Reine Seshie to help SMEs enhance sales, optimise inventory, and secure financing.
Seshie revealed that this funding will help the platform test new ideas and scale operations in ways that will make a difference for customers.
Co-founded by Lesley Mbogo and Peter Ndiang’ui, GoBEBA is a Kenyan direct-to-customer eCommerce platform that streamlines the purchase and delivery of bulky essential utilities, ensuring safe, quick, and reliable doorstep service in urban areas.
Also among the selected startups is NewForm Foods, a South African company founded by Brett Thompson and Tasneem Karodia that enables food producers and retailers to rapidly develop and scale cultivated meat products at a cost well below industry standards.