Tofino Capital closes the first round of a $10 million fund to assist African startups

Tofino Capital has announced the first close of its $10 million funding round, with a goal of completing the round in nine months.

Tofino Capital, founded by Eliot Pence and Aubrey Hruby, invests in early-stage companies in venture scalable markets that are underserved or underfunded by venture capital.

Among the companies in its portfolio are SeamlessHR, Sabi, Mecho, Gloopro, Social Stack, and others.

The founders have worked for over 100 startups, including SWVL, Flutterwave, and Foodology, and founded InsiderPR, one of the most well-known public relations firms in African technology.

The fund will focus on B2B entrepreneurs in fintech, logistics, and marketplaces.

These early-stage startups will receive funding ranging from $50,000 to $500,000, with a focus on the pre-seed and seed stages.

Tofino Capital is interested in both early and Series C startups as well as late-stage startups, believing that investing in both early and Series C startups as well as later startups is the most risk-adjusted way to invest in emerging markets.

However, in comparison to early-stage companies, it will invest very little in late-stage startups.

Tofino Capital’s current fund seeks to assist businesses in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, with a particular emphasis on Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Mexico.