Africa-based VC firm TCVP has made 18 early-stage investments in the last 3 years.
Located in Africa, The Continent Venture Partners (TCVP) is an early-stage investment firm that has quietly made 18 investments in the previous three years, supporting tech-driven businesses to help them achieve impact, profitability, and continental reach.
TCVP was founded in 2020 by managing partner Carisa Graf-Suleman and general partners Salim Suleman and Olufemi Oyinsan. The company’s portfolio includes companies including Helium Health, Terragon Group, Moniepoint, Mono, Lami, and Akiba Digital, and it covers fintech, e-health, and climate-tech, among other areas.
As an active investor, the business assists its portfolio firms in growing their teams, products, and overall reach in order to take advantage of regional and pan-African markets.Over the past three years, TCVP has made investments in 18 startups.
“With experience spanning 27 countries, we decided to start investing in and adding value to the new generation of startups through our expertise, knowledge, and extensive network of relationships,” according to Graf-Suleman.
“We want to help these entrepreneurs overcome hurdles and accelerate their growth. For example, fintech businesses frequently encounter considerable regulatory challenges in numerous countries. On their own, they may struggle to obtain the requisite permissions and credibility. However, our cooperation can give the assistance and legitimacy required to successfully overcome these hurdles. This way, we help to speed their growth while also contributing to the broader development of Africa’s tech ecosystem.”
Oyinsan and senior adviser Gbenga Oyebode from TCVP’s Nigerian team were already investing in Nigeria’s tech startup business, while Suleman was doing the same in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
“Given our common interests and belief in the ecosystem, we decided to create a fund to invest together and multiply our effect. “We developed the idea for the fund in 2019 and launched it in January 2020,” Suleman said.
Oyinsan cited three investments in particular as standouts among the 18 undertaken since then.
“Fingo was one of the first digital neo-banks to target Africa’s underbanked youth. Their study influenced our theory on fintech across the continent,” he stated.
“We are also delighted to have invested in Moniepoint, which has grown from zero to 1.5 million SMEs served. Finally, Credable is conducting vital work to help banks give short-term loans to Africa’s large unbanked population.”
TCVP has made investments in fintech, e-health, education, agri-tech, energy, marketing, climate, human resources, and mobility. The present fund invests in early-stage enterprises with an average check size of $250,000. Though its team has extensive experience and knowledge of Kenya and Nigeria, it is also exploring prospects in South Africa and Egypt.
However, the corporation offers more to the table than money.
“At our core, we are operators and seek to bring our operational experience to all the companies we invest in,” she said. “We want to invest in businesses and help them make crucial decisions and strategies for risk mitigation, expansion, and general operations. We believe that each of the companies we invest in has a regional and pan-African opportunity, and we work with them to realize that potential.”
Despite fluctuations in ecosystem investment, TCVP believes the continent remains home to great potential and some of the world’s best entrepreneurs.
“African consumers face diverse daily challenges, from transportation and payments to energy access and healthcare,” Suleman said. “We are far from where the market is saturated with well-funded solutions to these problems. So, we think there will be a steady stream of investable and competitive startups coming out of Africa, and we look forward to helping them grow.”
But what special assistance do African businesses require to realize their development potential?
“First, we invest in companies that we believe are producing goods or services to address a core customer pain point. We discovered that, regardless of the quality of the product or service, these organizations frequently lack the competence or experience required to run a business,” Oyinsan stated.
“As entrepreneurs and operators, we can contribute management knowledge to assist them grow and scale across borders. Many of the companies we invest in have regional expansion plans, but they lack the resources to carry them out on their own. We assist them by offering finance, experience, and a network of relationships.
“A frenzy of investments over the last two years has resulted in unprecedented funding levels. Now, funding has returned to a more realistic level, and high-quality entrepreneurs are rising to the top. We define quality entrepreneurs as those who demonstrate discipline and capital efficiency in the current macroeconomic context. “This emphasis on good management rather than valuations benefits the ecosystem,” she said.
Although there is a narrative of a lack of money, the number of funds active in the African venture market has increased exponentially.
“This capital is disciplined and is likely waiting on, or actively doing due diligence on, the types of companies that are poised to whether this current period of inflationary pressures and beyond,” according to her.
So, what are TCVP’s plans for the next year or so?
“Most importantly, we intend to continue supporting our portfolio firms as they navigate the present macroeconomic conditions in Nigeria, Kenya, and other critical countries. In terms of fresh investments, we have identified at least four new companies that are doing well and seeking funding to accelerate their expansion. Finally, we are establishing a new fund that will focus on later-stage investments,” Suleman said.
