Founders ask investors questions about venture capital in Africa
The typical founder–VC dynamic is one-directional: analysts ask the questions, and founders answer. But last month, I launched the first edition of Ask an Investor that flipped that script.
Instead of pitching, founders interrogated the gatekeepers of capital—probing their blind spots, decision frameworks, and assumptions in African venture. The result was a piece that mixed optimism (blended finance, creative economy upside) with sharp reality checks (thin margins, post–Series A stumbles).
In this edition, I’ve put the founders of Kwik, the mobility startup; Regfyl, the regtech startup; and GetEquity, the investment startup, in conversation with investors from Sahara Impact Ventures, Catalytic Africa, and Endeavor. They discuss funding artificial intelligence-enabled startups, Western scouting models, and decision-making.
It is important to note that these answers reflect the personal opinions of the analysts and not their firms.
The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Romain Poirot-Lellig (Kwik’s founder): The African VC scene has experienced an incredible decade. What is the one key thing African VCs need to improve upon?
Opeyemi Lawal (associate at Endeavor): I think the African VC space needs to rethink how we source and evaluate businesses. The current models, whether from Silicon Valley or Europe, don’t work well for Africa.
We need to re-evaluate the frameworks we use to find, assess, and support businesses. I don’t think those imported models are working for our context. Specifically, we need to build a model that reflects the African market and is tailored to the realities of the businesses we’re evaluating and supporting.
For example, when you compare a startup in Africa to one in Europe within the same vertical, there might be surface similarities, but the environments are entirely different. They are serving different customer bases, with different cultural expectations, political climates, and economic conditions. The Western VC models don’t account for Africa’s unique terrain. So we can’t keep copying and pasting those approaches. That’s the first big issue.
Second, we need to start looking inwards, especially when it comes to raising local capital. Right now, most African VCs raise from DFIs or foreign offices, particularly in Europe. These LPs often influence which businesses the VC ends up backing. Lately, you’ll notice that AI is trending and don’t get me wrong, I believe in the potential of AI. It’s opened up possibilities we couldn’t have imagined five or six years ago. But if you look at the hierarchy of urgent problems in Africa, I don’t think AI ranks in the top ten.
The widespread integration and use of AI in Africa is still limited. Yet we see many startups now rushing to brand themselves as “AI-enabled” because that’s what VCs, and ultimately LPs, are asking for.
Jude Dike (GetEquity’s founder): How are VCs thinking about Artificial Intelligence? Do current African VCs have an AI thesis?
Favour Eniola Ubaka (portfolio manager at Catalytic Capital): Most African VCs don’t really have a solid AI thesis just yet, but the interest is definitely picking up. They’re mostly betting on startups using AI to solve real, everyday problems in sectors like fintech, health, and agriculture.
Instead of backing the big technical stuff like core models, they’re going for practical tools that solve the day-to-day problems people face. A few funds like Future Africa and Chui Ventures are already leaning into this space. There are still hurdles like access to good data and infrastructure, but the momentum is clearly building.
Babatunde Ibidapo-Obe (Regfyl’s founder): Is the potential to be a unicorn a key metric for you when evaluating whether or not to invest in a startup? Especially in a market like ours with very few unicorns.
Samuel Frank (investment associate at Sahara Impact): The potential to be a unicorn is not a key metric when evaluating whether or not to invest. There are key metrics that include scalability of business model, ability to grow revenue exponentially (especially FX revenue), raising capital in the future, and gender & climate impact (as an impact-focused investor).
Other key metrics cut across the team: the ability to grow the business and their past experience (whether in corporate life or startup operations), the governance system of the business and the differentiation of the business from competitors.
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