Seedstars Announces its Second Emerging Market Seed-stage Fund
With this second emerging market seed stage fund, Seedstars, a seed-stage venture fund devoted to emerging and frontier markets, will build on its success in supporting over 90 emerging market venture ecosystems and invest in 100 pre-seed and seed-stage companies throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America over the course of the next three years.
With follow-on investments up to Series A, investments will be concentrated on businesses creating the infrastructure for the future of finance, business, health, work, and education.
The predecessor fund invested in 81 companies in over 30 countries, including Dastgyr (Pakistan, backers include Veon and SOSV), Foodics (MENA, backers include Sequoia and Prosus), MyRobin (Indonesia, backers include Accion Venture Lab and Antler), OlaClick (LATAM, backers include Meta and Google/Gradient), and Omnibiz (Nigeria, backers include Musha Ventures and Lofty.
“I have no doubt about the abundance of talented founders or the market opportunities,” says Charlie Graham-Brown, a Seedstars Partner, “but the challenges cannot be ignored.” Our risk-mitigation strategy innovates on many levels, whether through country diversification, portfolio construction strategy, value creation platform, or blended finance structure. We have a one-of-a-kind recipe, an incredible team, and backers in place to build on the success of the first fund and level the playing field for tech entrepreneurs worldwide.”
The focus of Seedstars on supporting scalable technology companies in emerging markets, addressing major societal challenges such as access to finance, health, and education, and collaborating closely with entrepreneurs to scale their businesses means that the impact thesis is embedded in the investment thesis.
A blended finance component with a first-loss tranche is also included in the fund, providing downside protection for investments in low-income markets.
Seedstars is looking for early-stage technology companies in emerging and frontier markets.
