Lagos-based Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s most active early-stage investors, has raised $64 million so far for its second fund, targeting a final close of $75 million, founding partner Kola Aina tells TechCrunch.
Among the investors is the Nigerian government, through its Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program, which marks the first time this government has invested in a VC fund. That’s significant, since Nigeria’s burgeoning startup community is home to the largest number of startup unicorns on the continent.
Other limited partners in Ventures Platform’s second fund include IFC, British International Investment (BII), Proparco, Standard Bank, MSMEDA, and AfricaGrow, along with European family offices such as Alder Tree Investment and prominent global backers like former Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel. Aina says 70% of the investors from its previous fund returned.
Nigeria choosing this firm for a debut investment is perhaps not surprising. Since its founding in 2016, Ventures Platform has built a reputation for spotting breakout startups in the country early, something it hopes to replicate in other African markets.
Ventures Platform launched its first institutional fund, a $46 million vehicle, in 2022 to focus primarily on pre-seed and seed rounds.
With the second fund, the firm will also pursue Series A investing, while “investing with more conviction” and seeking larger ownership stakes, Aina said. This should be good news for the region’s founders, as Series A funding has become harder to obtain after years of pullback from Silicon Valley firms.
While Ventures Platform plans to deepen its presence in Nigeria, the firm has begun establishing a presence in Francophone West Africa and North Africa, regions where it has already made a few investments, to gain earlier access to promising deals.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
So far, the pan-African venture capital firm has funded over 90 startups across the continent. Most of these investments, the firm says, are “painkiller” businesses across fintech, healthtech, agritech, edtech, and AI—companies that solve for non-consumption, or in simpler terms, serve markets where people have little to no access to a service.
Aina points to portfolio companies Visa-backed unicorn Moniepoint and Stripe-owned Paystack, two fint …