Iyin Aboyeji’s Future Africa initiative has launched an early stage investment fund that will grant as much as $50,000 to 20 startups yearly. The fund is coming in as an improvement on Future Africa’s initial vision to be a training ground for African founders and their startups.
Future Africa was launched in 2019 by Iyinoluwa Abodeji, Adenike Sheriff and Olabinjo Adeniran. Its initial goal was to build an online community for African founders where conversations would take place with the aim of improving the future of Africa.
However, the introduction of the fund, called Future Africa Fund, came upon realization that the biggest challenges African founders face revolve around finance.
“Future Africa is a platform that provides capital, coaching and community for mission driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity is within everyone’s reach.”
Future Africa
A new addition has since been made to the team with Chuba Ezekwesili joining as co-Founder of the venture.
The Future Africa Fund
Much is yet unknown about where the funding will be coming from or how the startup founders will be selected. However, TechNext gathered that the investment would likely be angel funding. Both Aboyeji and Nadayar Enegesi, another Andela co-founder, would be limited partners.
The Future Investment Fund has already made about 15 investments in different startups across the continent. They include Chaka, Max.ng, Big Cabal Media, Lori and Stemcafe.
Alongside the fund, venture platform will provide coaching and community for startup founders.
The coaching will be done majorly though the Future Africa Venture School (FAVS) which will work with an extensive network of experienced investors and Founders and operators from across Africa. According to Aboyeji, this will work towards building the economy in the future of Africa.
“When we started Future Africa, our goal was to build a community in deep conversation about Africa’s future. While our goal has changed, we haven’t lost sight of the fact that it will still take a village to build an African future.
When we started, we thought the only way to build this community was online through our newsletters, websites, social media and Slack. However, our biggest revelation is that the old magic of bringing people together in the flesh never fails,” Iyinoluwa Abodeji
Future Africa’s angel fund, coaching and community is targeted at providing resources to startups in Africa. Availability of all three in the African startup community will be a positive force for the progress and growth of African startups.
