Flourish Ventures Unveils Afro-centric Pre-seed Investment Platform

The introduction of affiliate Madica, a structured investment program for pre-seed stage technology startups in Africa, has been announced by Flourish Ventures, a global venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs building mission-driven fintech businesses.

With more than $500 million under management, Flourish Ventures supports entrepreneurs whose inventions improve the financial security and prosperity of individuals and small enterprises.

Its new industry-neutral program Madica will fund tech businesses, invest in founders of mission-driven and under-represented startups, and provide world-class company-building assistance. Madica wants to provide up to US$200,000 in funding each to 25 to 30 African business owners over the next three years in addition to providing multi-year programmatic support.

A carefully selected panel of seasoned African businesspeople who will serve as mentors to the Madica founders will be a key component of the program. Madica will offer this mentor community benefits based on business performance in the notion that excellent mentoring is a key component of the most vibrant startup ecosystems. Madica plans to distribute a portion of its financial gains to the larger ecosystem in order to foster this sense of community even further.

Emmanuel Adegboye, CEO of Madica, stated that although investment is expanding across the continent, monies are frequently disproportionately directed towards a small number of well-connected entrepreneurs and skewed towards the more well-known tech centres.

“Unlike other programs, Madica is sector-neutral and aims to intensify its provision of direct assistance, abundant resources, access to networks, and more. Due to this, we have set aside an additional US$6 million for programming support in addition to the investment cash. We invite entrepreneurs from all around the continent to apply for our program. One of Madica’s main objectives is to ensure that every African founder has an equal opportunity to succeed since we believe that Africans have an unrivaled sense of entrepreneurial spirit.

Mission-driven firms must have a minimum viable product (MVP), full-time founders, and little to no institutional funding in order to be eligible for the program.

“Madica is an investment in the African startup ecosystem with the bold objective of bringing about a more significant systemic change. Through Madica, we want to build a team of mentors, provide programs of the highest caliber, crowdsource follow-on funding, and use Flourish’s global presence to expand the reach of regional networks. Startups, investors, and governments will eventually profit from these, according to Ameya Upadhyay, a venture partner at Flourish Ventures.

“We hope that Madica can shift the perception of risk surrounding African businesses, attract more investment, motivate more entrepreneurs, and gain more media attention.”

The application process at Madica is open, so founders can participate without having to introduce themselves. Startups interested in participating can now apply and learn more here.