African investors accounted for 45% of total venture fund commitments in 2025, up from an average of 23% between 2022 and 2024, according to the African Private Capital Association.
It is the highest domestic participation rate the continent has recorded. For Joanne Manda, timbuktoo’s Global Lead, it is evidence of a deeper shift in how Africans think about their own economies.
“We are no longer waiting for handouts,” she told TechCabal on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, on May 15. “We are getting our hands dirty and actually doing the work.”
Manda leads timbuktoo, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-backed initiative that describes itself as the “world’s largest platform supporting Africa’s innovation ecosystem.” It currently runs six pan-African thematic hubs and has trained 3,480 innovators, according to its Q1 2026 report seen by TechCabal. timbuktoo also operates 16 University Innovation Pods across the continent with 12 more in the pipeline to address what investors consistently name as their biggest barrier to growth: talent.
TechCabal sat with her in Kigali to talk through what building innovation infrastructure at continental scale actually looks like, including the capital architecture that does not yet fit African markets, the shifting posture of African governments, and why she believes Africa’s technology transformation, when it arrives, will not be gradual.
