Ventures Platform has closed its second institutional fund at $84 million, targeting seed and pre-Series A startups across Africa with larger ticket sizes and higher ownership stakes. Backed by development finance institutions, commercial banks, and European family offices, the firm aims to capture higher returns through strategic secondary sales.
Scaling Up the Investment Thesis Across the Continent
Ventures Platform officially reached the final close of its VP Pan-African Fund II at $84 million. That figure sits just $23 million short of the total capital raised by all six African venture funds that closed in 2025.
The new vehicle is roughly 1.8 times the size of the firm’s inaugural $46 million institutional fund, which closed in December 2022. Despite the expanded capital pool, the strategy remains focused. The fund will back roughly the same number of companies as its predecessor, but with significantly larger cheques and aggressive ownership targets.
The Mechanics of Secondary Sales and Entry Ownership
Founding partner Kola Aina points to a hard lesson learned from Fund I: entry ownership dictates everything. According to Aina, the firm is targeting initial entry stakes between 10% and 12%, ensuring sufficient equity remains when companies reach liquidity events. Without meaningful ownership, early investors struggle to realize returns when startups mature.
Secondary sales have proven to be the most reliable route to liquidity in the region. Research from the firm indicates that 73% of African venture exits happen through acquisitions, while secondary sales provide a viable path to offload portions of mature holdings before an outright sale or public offering. Initial public offerings, by contrast, remain largely mythical in the current market environment.
To support this, the fund operates across three entry strategies—pre-seed, seed, and pre-Series A. First cheques can reach up to $3 million, with an average ticket size hovering around $1.5 million. Crucially, the fund reserves significant capital to double down on top performers as they scale toward Series A.
A Diversified Limited Partner Base
Fund II’s capital stack reflects a mix of development finance institutions and private commercial backers. New institutional participants include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Norway’s development finance institution Norfund, the Dutch family office Alphatron, and the Ashesi University Foundation, alongside a consortium of new family offices.
These new entities join returning limited partners from the $64 million first close secured in November 2025, which included Nigeria’s iDICE programme, the International Finance Corporation, Standard Bank, British International Investment, Proparco via the EU-backed Choose Africa programme, Egypt’s MSMEDA, AfricaGrow, and Alder Tree Investment.
While development finance and sovereign capital heavily influence the landscape of African venture capital, private capital—particularly European family offices—claims a larger slice of Fund II than it did in the previous fund cycle.
