Modus Africa
Al Khatem Tower, ADGM Square, Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi, 111999, United Arab Emirates
Overview
Modus combines operational, institutional, and financial capital to provide a foundation for the development of innovation ecosystems. This is done by building and supporting startups in MENA and other emerging innovation markets. At Modus, our core objective is to invest in people, and we do that by being composed of three pillars that holistically align with and complement each other to create high-return opportunities, without the traditional risk associated with early-stage investing. - Venture Builder: Helping founders fast-track their ideas and early MVPs into high-value creating companies. - Venture Capital: An early to mid-stage VC fund, providing funding to Modus built companies and external direct investments. - Corporate Innovation: For corporations and governments to leverage our internal know-how and IP to develop their entrepreneurial ecosystems. We partner with startups, corporates, and the ecosystem to transform innovative ideas into venture-backed businesses. Founded in 2016, we have offices in New York, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi. Our team, with over two decades of combined experience, consists of international experts who have “been there - done that”, spanning across six countries and four continents.
- Total investments
- 4
- Lead investments
- 1
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 5
Sector focus
- Venture Capital
Investment portfolio
- BFree
Participated · Equity · Feb 2024
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Lagos, BFree builds post-loan infrastructure to acquire, assess and recover non-performing loan portfolios across Africa. The company uses machine learning to profile defaulting borrowers, predict repayment capacity and customise engagement through automated bots and self-service portals while avoiding punitive measures such as late fees or blacklisting. To date it reports having handled over $740M of distressed loans and interacting with roughly 6.6 million borrowers, serving more than 30 financial institutions across Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. BFree has shifted from offering SaaS collections tools toward actively buying written-off or delinquent loans and managing recoveries internally. The startup is exploring technical extensions including blockchain and DeFi tools to streamline secondary debt trading. Its current financing mix includes equity and multiple debt facilities that the company is deploying to scale NPL acquisitions and ethical recovery operations.
- Koble
Led · Seed · Dec 2022
Koble (Koble Services Limited) is a UAE-based AI-powered platform that provides quantitative analytics to help investors source, analyze, and score pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Founded in 2020 by Damian Cristian and Guy Conway, the company built a unique dataset and proprietary algorithms to identify early-stage investments that can outperform the market. Its technology automates sourcing, evaluation, and scoring to mitigate human bias and capture sustainable alpha for investors. Koble's stated mission is to re-engineer the ethics, economics, and scalability of startup investing by applying a dispassionate, quantitative approach. The company intends to use new funding to further develop its algorithms and core technology. In December 2022 Koble raised $1.2M in a pre-seed round to advance product development.
- Pravica
Participated · Seed · May 2020
Pravica is an Egyptian email service provider that leverages blockchain technology (using Blockstack) to deliver user-owned, privacy-focused communications. The company was founded in April last year by Mohamed Hussein Abdou and rebranded from Dmails in March. Pravica says its product aims to guarantee full data privacy through a decentralized network. The startup has rapidly expanded its client base after building on Blockstack. With the new funding, Pravica plans to build its customer base, expand its team, and develop additional private communication tools and value-added options. The company intends to grow its footprint in the market using this investment.
- Meddy
Participated · Series A · Nov 2019
Meddy, founded in 2016 and based in Dubai, operates an online doctor appointment booking platform with search filters to help patients find appropriate providers. The company provides a consumer-facing booking product and tools that help doctors boost online presence, manage appointment books, monitor patient reviews and access analytics. According to the CEO Haris Afghadi, the platform is used by about 2,000 doctors from 150 hospitals and clinics in Dubai and Sharjah and is also being used in Qatar. Meddy has facilitated more than 100,000 online appointments and claims to have generated $50 million in revenue for participating hospitals and clinics. The company plans to use the new funding to expand into other emirates within the United Arab Emirates.