Oui Capital, a venture fund focusing on early stage technology companies in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa will engage in pre-series A financing of companies in Fintech, Mobility, Innovative healthcare, Education and Two-sided marketplaces. The fund was created to fill the imbalance that exists between high growth technology startups in Sub Saharan Africa and the smart capital available to take advantage of these opportunities.
The partnership will be directed by Managing Partner, Olu Oyinsan, who recently transitioned from his role as Vice President leading investments at Ingressive Capital, an early stage silicon valley backed venture fund that made early investments in several African startups including Paystack, Wifi.com.ng, Ogavenue, Awabike amongst others. Oui Capital is jointly founded by partners with extensive experience in building scalable tech companies.
Managing Partner Olu Oyinsan says that, “With Oui Capital, we will make funding available for early stage technology startups on the continent. Africa is undergoing a transformation largely driven by technology- similar to the Asian boom of a decade ago which has created over 200 unicorns to date. It is pertinent that ventures like Oui Capital are available to finance this transformation to create wealth and impact.”
He went further to note that, “We are mostly interested in companies which are solving real problems with scalable solutions, technology companies solving the everyday problems of Africa’s 1.2 billion people. Our very early-stage investments support startups with significant growth and impact potential.”
The launch of this new venture further pushes the right narrative that enhances the viability, scalability and productivity of African tech startups. It emphasizes the fact that with proper resources and funding, startups in the region would grow to be globally competitive.
Founding venture partner, Francesco Andreoli who is a former software engineer at IBM and Techstars mentor also said “In speaking with over 100 technology entrepreneurs on the continent, we have realized that access to early stage funding is just one of the major setbacks of building for scale. This fund combines the solutions to the two most pressing challenges of African entrepreneurs today- access to funding and lack of high quality mentors/advisors.”
“Asides funding, Oui Capital has created a pool of mentors the world who are subject matter experts in critical need areas for young companies who also double as advisors available to its portfolio companies at no additional cost. The importance of this to a startup, especially in Africa, cannot be overemphasized. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs in every way possible to scale their impact. This is in line with the company’s slogan…”saying yes, one entrepreneur at a time.”
The fund has on its advisory board, an impressive and vastly experienced group of industry professionals including Shyam Kamadoli, managing partner of AVG blockchain fund, Gbenga Oyebode, managing partner Aluko & Oyebode and board member MTN and Access Bank PLC amongst others.
