Seedstars Announces First Close of Its $30 Million Emerging Market Seed Stage Fund

Seedstars has launched Seedstars International ventures, its second emerging market seed stage fund. Seedstars also announced the first close of the fund with $20 million committed by notable investors including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Visa Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Symbiotics.

Seedstars will invest in 100 pre-seed and seed stage companies across Asia, Africa, MENA, and LATAM in the next 3 years. Investments will be focused on companies building for the future of finance, commerce, health, work and education, with follow-on investments up to Series A.

Since 2013, Seedstars has supported over 90 emerging market venture ecosystems, seeing firsthand how the founder talent pool has matured with 2,070 VC-backed startups in 2021 in their core markets versus just over 560 in 2017.

The predecessor fund invested in 81 companies in over 30 countries, with category-leading investments in all regions including Dastgyr (Pakistan, backers include Veon and SOSV), Foodics (MENA, backers include Sequoia and Prosus), MyRobin (Indonesia, backers include Accion Venture Lab and Antler), OlaClick (LATAM, backers include Meta and Google/Gradient) and Omnibiz (Nigeria, backers include Musha Ventures and LoftyInc Capital), among others.

Charlie Graham-Brown, Seedstars Partner, comments, “I have no doubt about the abundance of talented founders or the market opportunities, but the challenges can’t be ignored. Our strategy innovates on so many levels to mitigate risk, be it through our country diversification, portfolio construction strategy, value creation platform, or the blended finance structure. We have a unique recipe, an incredible team, and backers in place to build on the success of the first fund and level the playing field for tech entrepreneurs around the world.”

Seedstars’ focus on supporting scalable technology companies in emerging markets, solving major societal challenges like access to finance, health, or education, and working closely with entrepreneurs to scale their businesses means that the impact thesis is embedded in the investment thesis. The fund also includes a blended finance component with a first-loss tranche that provides downside protection for investments in the lowest-income markets.

Seedstars Partner Patricia Sosrodjojo comments, “Investing and impact don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Our strategy combines these two critical objectives in one and we believe that is what both founders and investors are searching for.”

Seedstars is also set to formally debut Seedstars Capital, a fund platform for multiple regional and thematic funds. The platform’s first strategies include Seedstars International Ventures and Seedstars Africa Ventures with more funds set to be announced shortly.