Nadya Eka Lestari
TechInAfrica — Samurai Incubate Africa, a Japanese-headquartered venture capital (VC) firm is currently looking to gain 2 billion yen ($18.2-million) for a second fund to support African startups.
Established in May 2018 as Leapfrog Ventures, Samurai Incubate Africa is a subsidiary company of Samurai Incubate.
According to the venture company firm’s representation said on an occasion last Thursday on January 9 that it had invested in and is currently entailing incubation support to 18 startups.
“In order to promote and accelerate this activity, we have decided to establish a second African fund,” the firm’s representation admitted.
Furthermore, the VC firm explained that the second fund, the Samurai Africa Fund 2 Investment Partnership, will aim three African countries, namely Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria.
The fund is seeking to invest in several fields such as fintech and insurtech, logistics, medtech and healthtech, retailtech and e-commerce, energy, agritech, transportation and mobility, and entertainment.
Samurai Incubate Africa said it will provide ticket sizes of between 5 million yen to 50 million yen (equivalent to $45,500 to $450,000).
The firm associate, Shoko Nakanowatari stated last Tuesday that the fund expects to make its first investment in April. Nakanowatari added startups looking to tap the fund can contact the VC by sending an email to [email protected]
Samurai Incubate Africa also said that it had been commissioned by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica) to conduct research on the promotion of entrepreneurship and the formation of a startup ecosystem in the African region.
The VC firm added that the initiative will strengthen Jica’s support for entrepreneurs in African countries. Some of Samurai Incubate Africa’s deals from its first fund include a $50 000 investment in Kenyan startup Biasharabot and $190 000 in three Ugandan startups, namely Francom, Swipe2pay, and Xente. Other Samurai Incubate Africa portfolio companies include Kenya’s Mpost, money transfer service SimbaPay, and Nigerian fintech Wallets Africa.
Source: ventureburn.com
