Nigerian venture capital (VC) firm LoftyInc Capital Management made 92 investments across 2021, with 65 of those in African tech startups.
LoftyInc Capital Management is a venture capital firm on a mission to “build an ecosystem of Africans investing in Africans solving African problems”.
In September, the firm announced the first close of its US$10 million LoftyInc Afropreneurs Fund 3 (LAF3) as it seriously scaled up its activity in the startup space across the continent. This came after the first “unicorn exit” via the LoftyInc Afropreneurs Fund 2 (LAF2) investment in Flutterwave, providing substantial returns to its investors.
LAF3 is a US$10 million technology fund investing in seed-to-Series A technology-enabled companies that are building the rails for Africa’s digital infrastructure, and poised to experience rapid growth.
The company made 92 investments in all in 2021, with 65 of those in African ventures. Twenty-seven of those were in Nigerian companies, namely Metalex, Sudo, ATHLST, AlumUnite, TechAdvance, RxAll, Omnibiz, Star Kitchens, PayPecker, Enlumi, Homefort, FlexFinance, eBanqo, Aladdin Digital Bank, Epump, Bitnob, RoHealth, Sabi, Eden Life, NestCoin, Touch and Pay, NoreBase, Terragon Group, Treepz, Aku Fintech, Ceviant and Pesabook.
LoftyInc also invested in 13 startups from Egypt, in the shape of Appetito, AlgoPay, Odiggo, Tagaddod, InstaDiet, ILLA, Pylon, ShipBlu, MoneyHash, Gahez Market, Supportfinity, Sylndr,and Nawah Scientific
Seven Kenyan startups received backing, namely Ada Marketplace, CashBackApp, Craydel, Dash-Spektra, FlexPay, Raise and Wowzi, while LoftyInc also funded six South African ventures (Akiba Digital, Beamm, Epic Contests, Foondamate, Smart Wage, and Welo Health).
Four of the startups were from Ghana, namely InstantRad, Second Stax, Tendo and Yemaachi Biotechnology, while Senegalese startups eJara and PAPS were also backed. Startups from Cameroon (StarNews Mobile), Ivory Coast (Afrikrea), Rwanda (PayDay), Uganda (Rocket Health), and Zambia (Zazu) also raised funding from LoftyInc in 2021.
The company also invested in 27 non-African businesses, based out of the United States (16), Pakistan (5), the United Kingdom (2), Bangladesh, Cambodia, Germany and the UAE (1 each).
“The inspiring thing about this is that it represents African fund managers and angel investors investing in African founders. Those who have succeeded have already been reinvesting back into other African entrepreneurs, so we have established a sustainable virtuous circle! And solved a lot of problems, and created a tonne of new jobs, and inspired youth to stop looking for government jobs and jobs abroad. They have been launching African ventures instead,” Marsha Wulff, co-founder and principal at LoftyInc Capital Management, told Disrupt Africa.
