Participated · Seed · Jun 2026

AethexAI develops compact, low-latency voice AI models and an orchestration layer designed for the dialects, code-switching, and telephony realities of Africa and the Middle East. The company built the Kora series of models (300 million to 1.7 billion parameters) and its own orchestration stack to reduce jitter and latency versus using large models hosted outside target regions. It sources training data from anonymized call-center recordings, shipped hard drives to radio stations across Africa for more audio, and uses a network of university students to annotate data and pronounce local names. AethexAI has launched an enterprise platform and offers APIs and SDKs for developers, and reports handling more than 17,000 calls per day. Its primary enterprise use cases include debt collection, customer activation, and KYC, and it deploys forward‑deployed engineers on contract while building telecom channel partnerships. The company was founded last year by CEO Mariama Diallo and CTO Ayooluwa Odemuyiwa.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2026

Orca Fraud builds an adaptive fraud-detection platform that plugs directly into payment rails such as mobile wallets, cards, stablecoins and bank transfers. Trained on messy, real-world emerging-market data, its machine-learning models make instant decisions during the transaction flow, protecting against complex attacks without slowing legitimate payments. The system is designed for informal economies where traditional KYC is patchy, allowing it to outperform legacy vendors like Feedzai and NICE Actimize and regional peers such as Curacel and Beam. Today, Orca monitors more than $5 billion in payments every month across 70+ countries for banks, fintechs and telcos. Co-founded by Thalia Pillay and Carla Wilby, the company’s architecture continually improves as volumes grow, giving it a compounding data advantage. With fresh capital, Orca plans to deepen integrations with large African banks and telcos, boost infrastructure to handle 10× current volumes, and expand into Latin America and Southeast Asia while tackling new fraud vectors like AI-generated account takeovers.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2026

Founded in 2022 by Radhika Bhachu and Rogito Nyageri, Ndovu operates a fully regulated “DeFi bridge” that connects fragmented African capital markets to global investment opportunities. Through its mobile and web platform, users can start investing with as little as US$50 across global stocks, ETFs, pan-African products and tokenised crypto assets. The company combines advanced blockchain rails with AI-driven portfolio tools while maintaining CMA and fund-management licences in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda and a no-objection letter for a Virtual Asset Providers Licence. Ndovu’s business model mixes AUM-linked fees, transaction & FX fees, and subscriptions, charging a 2–4.5% fee that has proven more trusted than earlier low-fee experiments. The service has attracted a community of 200,000 investors in 43 countries, amassing US$10.5 million in AUM and US$21 million in cumulative deposits. Near-term plans include securing additional fund-management licences in Zambia, DRC, Ethiopia and Angola to deepen its pan-African reach. The company believes its blend of high-tech infrastructure and human relationship managers will keep driving growth across volatile market cycles.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2026

Founded in 2023 by Karim Beqqali, Yakeey is building Morocco’s digital infrastructure for real-estate transactions. The company’s platform unifies property search, valuation, brokerage and financing into a single workflow, leveraging proprietary data, technology, and a fast-growing network of trusted brokers. By digitising one of Morocco’s most fragmented sectors, Yakeey aims to create a transparent, seamless experience for buying, selling and financing property. Early traction has demonstrated the model’s scalability, positioning the firm to capture demand for modernised real-estate services across North Africa. The company plans to use fresh capital to deepen its presence in Morocco and pursue regional expansion. A recent $15 million Series A—the largest of its kind in the country—has strengthened its balance sheet and provided resources for accelerated growth.

Led · Seed · Dec 2025

Founded in 2022 by former Jumia executives Kayode Adeyinka and Samuel Esiri, Gigmile operates a mobility asset-financing platform focused on gig-economy workers. Its flagship product, Gamma Mobility, offers a lease-to-own model covering motorcycles, tricycles, cars, and commuter vehicles, bundling insurance, maintenance, documentation, and daily repayments capped at one-third of expected earnings. The company has already deployed more than 10,000 vehicles, and 1,500 riders have reached full ownership. Gigmile works with manufacturing partners such as Yamaha, TVS, Bajaj, and Hero to secure vehicle supply. It currently serves customers in 13 cities across Nigeria and Ghana and plans a larger expansion in 2026. To date, the startup has raised a total of USD 21 million in combined debt and equity financing to support its rapid growth and social-impact mission.