Angela Muraguri’s Post

Oxford to Host Third Africa Venture Finance Programme for VC Leaders. The University of Oxford's Saïd Business School is set to host the third Africa Venture Finance Programme, bringing together 44 prominent African and Africa-focused venture capital fund managers. The event is scheduled for September 9-13, 2024 and aims to foster discussions on creating a sustainable and impactful investment landscape across the continent. This year's programme highlights gender diversity, with half of the participants being women, addressing the industry's need for greater female representation at senior levels. Attendees include representatives from leading VC funds such as Partech, AfricInvest Group, TLcom, Norssken , and Speedinvest.The week-long, in-person workshop is designed exclusively for VC fund managers investing in early and growth-stage technology companies in Africa. Participants will engage with Oxford academics, prominent investors, and technology professionals from around the world on various industry topics. The European Investment Bank (EIB) emphasizes that the programme aims to equip fund managers to identify and fund innovative solutions addressing Africa's unique challenges. It also facilitates knowledge sharing and discussions to drive rapid growth in Africa's technology venture capital sector. Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President of the EIB, reaffirmed the bank's commitment to funding innovative solutions to global challenges, highlighting Boost Africa's role in supporting a vibrant VC ecosystem in Africa. #Africa #VC #Venturecapital #Oxford #Innovation #Finance Photo: Previous cohort of the Africa Venture Finance Programme.

Private equity is rising in Africa while venture capital pulls back. With VC funding down 57%, PE firms are hunting for cheap assets and startups with lower valuations are now on the table. If PE takes over, startups may have to shift from growth-at-all-costs to profitability. What do you think more PE means for African startups? https://lnkd.in/er8t_z2T

Thank you #IFCSMEVentures for gathering more than 100 impact investors, fund managers and DFIs for the 12th SME Ventures Forum last week in Istanbul. It's a great platform for investors to openly discuss challenges and opportunities in #frontiermarkets and what can be done to mobilize more capital. "Just as we and other fund managers in the program build ecosystems with our entrepreneurs in our markets, SME ventures has become a platform to share experiences, learn from mistakes, and do more of what works," says Barthout van Slingelandt, one of our managing partners. Associate partner Carol Birungi took to the stage to discuss exits and share our experience with mezzanine instruments. IFC's SME Ventures plays a key role in promoting investments in frontier markets. "The SME ventures program started as a petri dish for markets that were seen as uninvestable over a decade ago," says Barthout. "The program seeded our first fund allowing us to start investing in Central Africa. We were one of eight new fund managers earmarked to start in various frontier regions globally." "Fast forward to almost 15 years later and the program has been instrumental in mobilising over USD 1.4 bln from other investors. And as we returned capital to investors, showed impact, and built our franchise, we raised three more funds during this period, bringing our total raise to date to over USD 260 mln. More importantly, we invested in more than 80 local businesses and helped them on their growth path." IFC Disruptive Tech, VC & Funds, Proparco #impactinvesting #privatedebt #Africa #DRCongo #Uganda #Angola #Kenya #Zambia

I certainly believe there is a lot of potential in Southeast Asia. The region is likely to produce a few $10B companies in the next 7-10 years, and I am confident that at least one of them will be in the F&B space.

posting a follow up thought on this because i think it matters: i think the undesirable outcome that Jeremy mentioned (and I agree the outcome has been undesirable) is not caused by the size of the funds or the way they have been invested in companies. I believe he is mistaking the quality of outcome for the quality of investment decisions. you can make good decisions and produce bad outcomes. the solution isn’t to go and change the decisions, but to double down in the decision making model. in the case of venture capital, the only decision making model that has worked globally is the power law. example: multiple investors invest in 100 smartest founders hoping 5 of them will become billion dollar companies and make a great return that pay off for the other 95 that didn’t. if you do that and all 100 fail, the solution isn’t to invest less, but to keep doing it again, knowing that founders become more experienced over time and knowledge transfer and network effects compound and the results improve. It is not for every LP. it is not for every fund manager. it is not for every entrepreneur or employee. But those who are in it should be comfortable the risk and reward involved. you can’t control/predict who wins, and reducing the fund sizes will just make Southeast Asia less desirable to smart talented and ambitious people. the notion that SEA has its own vibe and therefore VC laws don’t apply is exactly to say “we have given up on SEA to produce billion dollar companies, ever” and i think it’s important to at least say that explicitly. respectfully, VCs complaining about other VCs raising too much may be what LPs wanna hear in the short term but it is in effect suicidal for the startup scene. it’s not VC if it’s optimized for 2-3x return, its value investing. i don’t call that localization, i call it killing VC in SEA altogether. the craziest technological breakthrough of our lifetime is out there and the VC discourse in SEA cannot be about reducing fund sizes.

Funds in Southeast Asia are raising too much money. Yes, this problem does not just apply to startups. Let’s run the numbers on the fund economics: → A $100M fund would have to deliver at least 300% (over 10 years) → That means they’ll need to return $300M → If they allocate in a hyper-diversified way, expect ~5% stake in companies → Working backwards, they’ll need $6B worth of exits to provide that return → If you raised a $300M fund, you’ll need triple of that. ($18B) 🚨 The question now is, can you realistically find $18B in exits in Southeast Asia at its current state of maturity to deliver that promise? Very few are able to or will ever meet that target. But, they’ll still raise these rounds anyway, because: - Certain institutions only invest in funds of a certain size - ‘More is better’ - right? - Higher fees on AUM for the fund This leads to forced allocation and can set unrealistic expectations for founders. The path forward for our region has to be more grounded. Funds need to work out a thesis without being overly optimistic. Otherwise we’ll see DPIs decline and apprehension from LPs to invest here. Play your own game. Adjust expectation to the demands and actual size of the opportunity. When results are delivered, then we can progress as a region with more capital confidence.

I know Jeremy as an optimistic person and someone who is bullish on Southeast Asia and Singapore and I'm a big fan of Tin Men Capital but this post comes across quite extremely pessimistic. if this view is represented by most VCs in SEA it’d drive a lot of founders away from SEA. Writing my commentary because I think a lot of the views founders and VCs hold need to go thru 99 rounds of discourse until SEA startup scene finds its original culture and message. -unrelated side note- shout out to jeremy for writing his thoughts publicly and engaging with the audience in comments section though, i think these conversations make a huge difference. Most VCs and founders in Singapore and SEA are too quiet and that's such a con of building in SEA. it feels like a depressed ecosystem and it doesn't need to. the culture of "share/talk when you make it" is so broken and net negative. Conversations about the most important topics are what allows every member of the ecosystem to qualify/disqualify decisions much faster and grow exponentially. btw i care about this because the 3 countries that i've lived in (iran, malaysia, singapore) suffer from extreme forms of brain drain (for very different reasons) but one thing i know is that countries get worse over time if they don't find a way to accommodate their thinkers/builders/entrepreneurs. -end of sidenote- anyway, the post gives me the impression that it assumes the following: it assumes zero chance of producing global companies like Stripe, in SEA, in the next 10 years. It also assumes the entrepreneurial talent in SEA has no chance of changing the odds, even thru its ability to move globally and sell globally, at the time when the craziest tech (AI) is changing the odds and disrupting markets. it also assumes SEA VCs can somehow control the market outcomes and make SEA more mature if they invest prudently and in smaller amounts. in my view, if SEA has more capital and an open mind, the population of its high quality entrepreneurs will increase exponentially(more talent retention and attraction). english speaking region, good regulations, low cost of living. the opposite is absolutely true too. talent leaves when there’s less money since talent follows resources.. if VCs raise based on the assumption that SEA is and will be an immature market, then that will indeed become the reality. the opposite of what jeremy shared wouldn’t be to spray and pray, but to signal willingness to fund growth.

This raises a critical point about investment leak in SEA, particularly in Indonesia. The game of startups and investors here is heavily influenced by psychological factors—I'm not bias-bias—like FOMO, driven by unicorns, leading to a bubble effect. However, real untapped potential lies in addressing simple yet profound problems beyond e-commerce, agritech, fintech, and carbon credit. Overlooked communities represent opportunities to break wealth concentration and drive true economic transformation. We need to shift from traditional consumerism to empowering communities as drivers of pure capitalism. Instead of social experiments and aid, we should give these communities roles to become engines of prosperity for themselves. This neglected approach holds immense promise. By leveraging local communities' potential and addressing their unique challenges, we can generate sustainable returns. This aligns with adjusting expectations to the actual size and demands of our opportunities. Ultimately, it's about making real changes that resonate with ground realities. By doing so, any investment in our region will be more grounded and yield significant returns, driving capital confidence and regional progress. #startup #investment #fundraising #bubbleffect #FOMO #unicorn #changemakers #DHGrowth #SEA

Eleven African countries are currently among the top 20 fastest-growing global economies, according to the African Development Bank Group. However, more work is required to overcome obstacles and fully unlock the potential of venture capital (VC) investments in the dynamic region, say Strathmore University’s Edwin Obonyo and INSEAD’s Claudia Zeisberger. Offering start-ups VC funding at an early stage can help improve their trajectory of success. This doesn’t just help the start-up – it also enables local investors to develop their knowledge of VC investing, underlines the value of local expertise, and strengthens all-important network ties between local and international investors. #VentureCapital #Africa

👀 This week’s featured investor is Chui Ventures. 👀 https://chuivc.com Chui Ventures is at the forefront of transforming Africa's tech landscape, strategically investing in early-stage, high-growth businesses. The firm is dedicated to identifying and supporting African founders who blend local insight with a global perspective, fostering partnerships that drive innovation and impact. With a strong Pan-African focus, Chui Ventures champions gender diversity and supports startups led by exclusively African founders with global ambitions. Backed by a team with over 45 years of collective experience in global corporate banking, private equity, and wealth management across Africa, the USA, and the UK, Chui Ventures is committed to catalyzing inclusive growth and innovation across the continent. By taking minority stakes in forward-thinking, growth-oriented companies, Chui Ventures generates both financial returns and substantial non-financial value. Their impressive portfolio includes influential startups like ShopZetu, Tappi, Leta, PricePally, Regxta, and Pade, each driving significant advancements in their respective industries. #techinvestment #africanstartups #innovation #inclusivegrowth #chuiventures #techforgood #entrepreneurship #venturecapital