The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Feb 2025

Affinity Africa runs a full-stack digital bank aimed at closing Ghana’s financial inclusion gap by offering free current and savings accounts, instant payments, and algorithmically priced credit lines to individuals and MSMEs. Launched publicly last October, the Accra-based app has already attracted more than 50,000 customers, 65% of whom had never used formal banking before and over 60% of whom are women working in the informal sector. The fintech disburses credit at monthly interest rates of 3–7% and has issued more than $15 million in loans while maintaining a 3% non-performing loan ratio. Loans contribute over 90% of revenue, which has climbed 37% month-over-month during the past six months; deposit inflows, growing 54% month-over-month, are sourced mainly (89%) from mobile-money top-ups. Affinity complements its mobile product with an in-person agent network of about 30 representatives who have onboarded roughly half of its customers, 55% of whom subsequently migrate to the app. The hybrid distribution strategy aims to build trust and accelerate digital adoption among first-time banking users. With a proprietary banking software stack and regulatory approval under a savings-and-loans license, the company plans to deepen its product suite and scale nationwide using newly secured capital.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2024

Octavia is a Direct Air Capture (DAC) company that designs and operates machines to extract CO2 from ambient air, liquefy it, and hand it to a storage partner for underground mineralization. Founded in Kenya two years ago, it began field carbon capture in February and currently operates two devices with a combined capacity of 50 tonnes per year. The startup plans to build more machines and expects to reach a capture capacity of 1,500 tonnes per year beginning in 2025 when a storage site run by partner Cella Mineral Storage comes online. Octavia cites Kenya’s Rift Valley basalts and abundant renewable energy (notably geothermal) as competitive advantages for low-carbon, permanent storage. The company has a 60-person team (40 engineers), is an XPRIZE Carbon Removal finalist, and reports 12 customers to date, with the Danish marketplace Klimate among its largest clients. Financially, Octavia closed a $3.9M seed equity round and has secured $1.1M in advance sales of carbon credits to help scale operations.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2024

Bosso operates Zambia’s largest online marketplace for construction materials, serving hardware stores and contractors. Founded in 2022 by Chisepo Chirwa, Mukopaje Singogo, Ibn Kafwanka, and Salwa Shamapande, the platform has onboarded over 1,000 hardware stores and supplied materials to more than 200 homebuilders across four of Zambia’s ten provinces. The company says its marketplace has evolved into a holistic B2B and B2C solution aimed at addressing Africa’s housing deficit. Bosso raised US$400,000 in a pre-seed round to expand its platform and add new features. Management plans to transfer two years of platform data into AI technology to reduce inefficiencies and to launch a new platform that bundles services on top of materials. Planned services include land conveyance, financing, a "save now pay later" option, and access to construction companies, and the startup aims to source materials for over 5,000 homes by 2025.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2024

Roam designs, manufactures, and deploys electric motorcycles aimed at replacing the region’s dominant petrol two-wheelers with cleaner, lower-cost alternatives. The company assembles its bikes at a Nairobi factory and pairs them with battery-swapping and charging services to lower total cost of ownership for riders. Management sees a $1.2 billion addressable market in Kenya and a $15.5 billion opportunity across Africa and plans to expand into Eastern and Southern Africa while densifying its charging and service network. To fund this growth, Roam has attracted a mix of equity, debt, and now crowdfunding, accumulating more than $31 million to date. Its $24 million Series A earlier in 2023 combined $14 million in equity with $10 million in debt from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Equity backers include Equator Africa, At One Ventures, TES Ventures, Renew Capital, The World We Want, and One Small Planet. By coupling vehicle sales with infrastructure build-out, Roam positions itself as both a hardware manufacturer and an energy-network operator, a capital-intensive model that management believes will create long-term barriers to entry.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

BuuPass operates a B2B2C full‑stack marketplace that connects transport companies with online ticketing platforms to digitize long‑distance transport in Africa. The company is focused on capturing a share of the estimated $100 billion long‑distance transport market and aims to scale toward unicorn status. BuuPass has sold over 16 million travel tickets and generated more than $100 million in GMV, with a presence across East and Southern Africa and routes in over 15 countries. The business plans to use outside investment to expand its reach and enhance its technology and product offering. The recent backing from Tim Draper is expected to provide strategic guidance and access to a global network to accelerate growth. BuuPass is headquartered in Nairobi. BuuPass is a B2B2C full‑stack marketplace that provides a bus management system (BMS) to digitize operators’ inventory, sales and operations while connecting them to a consumer-facing booking marketplace across web, app and USSD. Its BMS includes a point-of-sale solution and a parcel management module to help operators reduce cash leakages, manage fleets and draw operational insights. The platform also supports flight and train ticketing and has a partnership history with Safaricom to facilitate Kenya Railways bookings. BuuPass processes about 12,000 transactions per day, has recorded over 9 million ticket sales to date, and reported gross merchandise value slightly over $30 million in 2022. It supports a fleet of roughly 1,200 vehicles from more than 25 bus companies, including Easy Coach. The company plans to scale first in Kenya and Uganda and ultimately become a pan‑African infrastructure provider for long‑distance transportation.