African VC Firm Ventures Platform closes $64M for second fund targeting seed and series A investments

Pan-African Fund II attracts backing from Standard Bank, IFC, BII, and Y Combinator founder to finance infrastructure-focused startups across continent with $75M final target

Ventures Platform, a pan-African venture capital firm specializing in seed-stage investments, has secured $64 million in the first close of its second fund, VP Pan-African Fund II, with plans to expand beyond initial-stage financing into Series A rounds while deepening operations across the continent.

Established in 2016, Ventures Platform invests in companies addressing infrastructure deficiencies and access barriers through market-creating innovations designed to serve previously unserved populations. The firm's investment thesis centers on identifying ventures that tackle non-consumption by reducing delivery costs and eliminating structural obstacles to service access across African markets.

The portfolio includes companies such as Raenest, Fez Delivery, LemFi, Moniepoint, OmniRetail, Paystack, PiggyVest, Remedial Health, SunFi, ThriveAgric, and Verto, spanning financial services, logistics, healthcare, agriculture, and payments infrastructure.

The first close reached $64 million against a final target of $75 million, drawing commitments from commercial banks, development finance institutions, institutional investors, and high-net-worth individuals. Anchor investors include Standard Bank, International Finance Corporation, British International Investment, A to Z Impact, Proparco with FISEA, and AfricaGrow. The fund also secured participation from European family offices including Alder Tree Investment, alongside prominent technology investors including Y Combinator founder Michael Seibel.

VP Pan-African Fund II represents a strategic expansion of Ventures Platform's investment mandate. While maintaining its foundation in pre-seed and seed financing, the fund will now lead and participate in Series A rounds, providing continuity capital to high-performing portfolio companies and reducing risk for subsequent investors. This expansion enables the firm to support ventures through critical growth stages where capital availability often constrains African startups.

The fund will consolidate Ventures Platform's presence in Francophone Africa and expand into North African markets, while strengthening core operations in Nigeria and other established territories. Investment priorities include ventures developing essential infrastructure solutions in financial technology, digital health, agricultural technology, education technology, and artificial intelligence applications, among other sectors addressing fundamental market gaps.

"The backing we've received from a diverse group of blue-chip partners is a powerful endorsement of Africa's place as the purest, most asymmetric source for non-consensus alpha and transformative impact," said Kola Aina, founding partner at Ventures Platform. "The continent's innovation opportunity is boundless, the needs are immense, but realising its full impact demands smart contextual capital, post-investment value creation, and a commitment to de-risking groundbreaking market-creating innovations. With VP PAF II, we are broadening our reach and deepening our focus on discovering and empowering innovators that will solve chronic non-consumption across the continent."

Aina emphasized the firm's focus on structural challenges as investment opportunities. "We believe Africa's challenges are its greatest opportunities. By supporting resilient founders, we're catalysing sustainable, market-creating innovations that will shape the future of the continent and plug gaps for the next billion. As we expand our footprint, our focus remains clear: to identify and back ventures that are building market-creating innovations that solve for non-consumption and drive economic evolution."

The fund closing occurs amid evolving dynamics in African venture capital, where early-stage funding has experienced volatility while later-stage capital remains constrained. By extending its investment capability into Series A rounds, Ventures Platform addresses a persistent gap in African startup financing—the shortage of growth-stage capital that often forces promising companies to seek offshore investment or slow expansion.

Ventures Platform's approach emphasizes "market-creating innovations"—a framework popularized by Harvard Business School's Clayton Christensen Institute—which identifies opportunities in serving non-consumers rather than competing for existing customers. This strategy proves particularly relevant in African markets where large populations lack access to basic financial, healthcare, education, and commerce infrastructure, creating addressable markets that traditional business models have not reached.

The participation of development finance institutions alongside commercial investors reflects growing institutional recognition of African technology ventures as viable investment opportunities beyond traditional development aid frameworks. This convergence of commercial and development capital enables funds to pursue both financial returns and measurable social impact across portfolio companies.