The Continent Venture Partners (TCVP) is an Africa-based early-stage investment firm backing tech-driven companies to help them achieve impact, profitability, and continental reach, and the firm has quietly made 18 investments in the last three years.
Launched in 2020 by managing partner Carisa Graf-Suleman and general partners Salim Suleman and Olufemi Oyinsan, TCVP has a portfolio spanning fintech, e-health, climate-tech and more, including the likes of Helium Health, Terragon Group, Moniepoint, Mono, Lami, and Akiba Digital.
The firm is a hands-on investor that helps its portfolio companies expand their products, teams, and overall reach to capitalise on regional and pan-African markets. Collectively, TCVP has invested in 18 startups in the last three years.
“With experience spanning 27 countries, we decided to start investing in and adding value to the new generation of startups through our expertise, knowledge, and extensive network of relationships,” said Graf-Suleman.
“We aim to support these startups in overcoming challenges and accelerating their growth. For example, fintech startups often face significant regulatory hurdles in multiple countries. On their own, they may struggle to gain the necessary approvals and credibility. However, our partnership can provide the support and legitimacy needed to navigate these challenges successfully. This way, we help accelerate their growth and contribute to the overall development of the tech ecosystem in Africa.”
TCVP’s Nigeria-based team, Oyinsan and senior advisor Gbenga Oyebode, were already investing in Nigeria’s tech startup industry, while Suleman was investing in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
“Given our mutual interests and shared belief in the ecosystem, we decided to form a fund to invest together and amplify our impact. We formed the idea for the fund in 2019 and launched it shortly after in January 2020,” Suleman said.
Of the 18 investments made since then, three in particular stand out, Oyinsan said.
“Fingo is one of the first digital neo-banks targeting the underbanked youth in Africa. Their work has shaped our thesis on fintech on the continent,” he said.
“We are also proud investors in Moniepoint, which has seen incredible growth from zero to 1.5 million SMEs served. Lastly, Credable is doing critical work to help facilitate and enable banks to provide short-term loans to Africa’s massive unbanked population.”
TCVP has invested across fintech, e-health, ed-tech, agri-tech, energy tech, marketing tech, climate-tech, human resources, and mobility. Its current fund invests in early-stage companies with an average check size of US$250,000. Though its team has a long track record in Kenya and Nigeria, and understands those markets well, it is also looking at opportunities in South Africa and Egypt.
The firm brings more to the table than just money, however.
“At our core, we are operators and seek to bring our operational experience to all the companies we invest in,” Graf-Suleman said. “We aim to invest in companies and help them with critical decisions and strategies around risk mitigation, expansion, and general operations. We think there is a regional and pan-African play for each of the companies we invest in, and we help them realise that potential.”
Despite ecosystem funding fluctuating, TCVP believes the continent is still home to immense potential and some of the world’s best entrepreneurs.
“African consumers face diverse daily challenges, from transportation and payments to energy access and healthcare,” Suleman said. “We are far from where the market is saturated with well-funded solutions to these problems. So, we think there will be a steady stream of investable and competitive startups coming out of Africa, and we look forward to helping them grow.”
But what specific help do African startups need in order to fulfil their growth potential?
“Firstly, we invest in companies we think are developing products or services that solve a fundamental consumer pain point. We find that, despite the quality of the product or service, these companies often lack the expertise or experience it takes to run a business,” Oyinsan said.
“Being entrepreneurs and operators ourselves, we can bring that management expertise to help them grow and scale across borders. Many of the companies we invest in have regional expansion as part of their strategies but lack the capacity to execute that strategy on their own. We help them by providing capital, expertise, and a network of relationships.”
Speaking of the current capital shortage, Suleman-Graf said TCVP believes more exits are needed before additional capital can be attracted to the ecosystem.
“A flurry of investments over the last two years saw funding levels hit records. Now, funding has deflated back to a more realistic level, and entrepreneurs of great quality are rising to the top. By quality entrepreneurs, we mean those showing discipline and capital efficiency, given the current macroeconomic environment. This focus on good management rather than valuations is good for the ecosystem,” she said.
There is a narrative of lack of capital, but there has also been exponential growth in the number of funds operating in the African venture space.
“This capital is disciplined and is likely waiting on, or actively doing due diligence on, the types of companies that are poised to whether this current period of inflationary pressures and beyond,” she said.
So what are TCVP’s plans for the coming year or so?
“Most of all, we plan to continue to support our portfolio companies in navigating the current macro-economic situations in Nigeria, Kenya, and other key markets. Regarding new investments, we have identified at least four new companies that are doing very well and looking for capital to fuel their growth. Finally, we are in the planning stages for a new fund focusing on later-stage investments,” Suleman said.
