Breega, one of the fastest-growing early stage funds in Europe, has announced the launch of its first African fund, “Breega Africa Seed I”, which aims to become the leading early-stage investor in African startups.
Since closing its first fund in 2015, the Paris-based Breega, which also has offices in London and Barcelona, has reached US$700 million in assets under management, invested in over 100 startups across 15 countries.
Breega has now opened two new offices, in Lagos, Nigeria, and Cape Town, South Africa, to manage its new pan-African fund “Breega Africa Seed I”. Endowed with US$75 million, the fund will invest in ventures in Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya, as well as several French-speaking African countries, such as Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
With this fund, Breega plans on investing checks ranging from US$100,000 to US$2 million, entering as the initial investor. It will focus on high-impact and sustainable innovations that meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by the United Nations, by investing in pivotal sectors such as agri-tech, ed-tech, e-health, fintech, insurtech, prop-tech and logistics.
Several of the continent’s leading start-ups have already benefited from a first investment and support from Breega’s in-house scaling team, including Numida, Socium, Klasha, Kwara, Coachbit and Sava.
Leading the new fund are Melvyn Lubega, co-founder of digital education unicorn Go1, and Tosin Faniro-Dada, former CEO of Endeavor in Nigeria. Lubega will lead Breega’s activities in Eastern and Southern Africa from the Cape Town office.
“Today, Africa receives one per cent of global funding for a region which is home to 18 per cent of the population of the planet. This is a large funding gap to close across a continent at the dawn of its technological potential. Breega, an international fund for founders built by founders, has a unique role to play in bridging this gap,” Lubega said.
Faniro-Dada is the partner in charge of West and North Africa, who will contribute her experience, notably as a board member of African fintech unicorn Flutterwave.
“Africa is experiencing a boom in entrepreneurship, reflecting a surge of innovation and ambition across the continent. Our entrepreneurs are driven by the ambition to find solutions to the continent’s challenges. It is truly inspiring and I’m thrilled to be able to support them thanks to the unique model we’ve developed at Breega,” she said.
