Ventures Platform, Africa’s leading seed-stage fund, has announced the final close of its second institutional fund – VP Pan-African Fund II (VP PAF II)– at $84 million, exceeding its original target of $75 million.
Achieved just three years after the close of Fund I and against a markedly more cautious global venture backdrop, the oversubscribed Fund II reflects growing global institutional confidence in Africa’s innovation economy, and confidence in Ventures Platform’s approach to identifying and backing exceptional founders from the earliest stages of company building.
The final close brings new institutional investors into the fund’s LP base, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Norfund (Norway’s Development Finance Institution), Alphatron, and Ashesi University Foundation – a strong, reflection of the fund’s appeal to institutions committed to developing Africa’s innovation ecosystem, The close also welcomed a consortium of new family offices.
These new investors join a group of existing LPs from the first close, including Nigeria Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, Standard Bank (South Africa), British International Investment (BII), Proparco (through the EU-backed Choose Africa VC programme), Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), AfricaGrow, and Alder Tree Investment.
