The raise underscores investor confidence in Africa’s early-stage tech ecosystem.

Roughly 70 % of the limited partners in this round were also backers of Ventures Platform’s previous institutional fund, signaling strong continuity in support.

Among the new and returning institutional investors are Nigeria’s Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) programme (via the Bank of Industry), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Standard Bank of South Africa, British International Investment (BII), Proparco (through the EU-backed Choose Africa VC initiative), Egypt’s Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) and AfricaGrow.

According to founding partner Kola Aina, the backing from a “diverse group of blue-chip partners” reflects a belief that Africa remains “the purest, most asymmetric source for non-consensus alpha and transformative impact.”

He noted that while the continent’s innovation potential is vast, turning that into meaningful impact requires capital that is “smart and contextual”, accompanied by active post-investment value creation and support for market-creating, de-risked innovations.

The Fund II strategy marks a shift for Ventures Platform. While its earlier vehicles focused primarily on pre-seed and seed round deals, the new fund will also lead and catalyse Series A-stage investments and expand the firm’s footprint across Africa — from Nigeria to Francophone West Africa and into North Africa.

The fund’s domain of focus includes sectors such as fintech, healthtech, agritech, edtech and artificial intelligence — targeting the so-called “painkiller” solutions that address chronic non-consumption and infrastructural gaps.

Since its founding in 2016, Ventures Platform has backed more than 90 startups and sees its prior fund as having generated returns across multiple vintage years.

Some of its portfolio companies have grown into category leaders and attracted subsequent series funding.

In terms of the broader ecosystem, the raise comes at a time when investment into African tech is rebounding after a slower year, signalling that investor appetite for the continent’s startup opportunities remains strong despite global headwinds.

With the initial US $64 million close, the fund is well on track toward its US $75 million goal and positions Ventures Platform to deploy a deeper level of capital and support across the continent’s nascent but high-growth technology companies.