Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) has raised US$43 million for its pan-African venture fund, which invests in scalable, tech-enabled, post-revenue startups addressing difficult challenges on the continent.
Formed in 2021 as a joint venture between Kepple Africa Ventures (KAV), a Japanese venture capital firm, and Verod Holdings (Verod), an African growth capital private equity firm, VKAV is led by partners Satoshi Shinada, Ryosuke Yamawaki, and Ory Okolloh.
The VKAV Fund is its first investment vehicle, and will leverage the accumulated knowledge and skills of the two companies to invest in startups across Africa, focusing on early-stage companies that are working to solve social challenges in the region.
The US$43 million first close comes from backers including SBI Holdings, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (SMTB), and individual investors such as Osamu Kaneda. VKAV’s current investments include the likes of Moove Africa, Koko Networks, Ceviant, Chari, Shuttlers, and Julaya.
“JICA has been supporting seed-stage start-ups in Africa through Project NINJA and Home Grown Solutions (HGS) via the African Union Development Agency. This investment, however, will expand JICA’s support to include financial assistance for early-stage startups, and is expected to enhance the collaboration between Japanese companies and startups in Africa. JICA will continue to support startup companies and funds that are working to solve social challenges in developing regions, not just in Africa, but throughout the entire world,” JICA said.
