Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, the celebrated tech investor and one of the 100 most influential people of African descent, has released a statement outlining his investment plans for 2022. Iyin, known for co-founding Andela and founding Flutterwave, founded Future Africa, an innovation fund that provides capital and coaching to innovators across Africa, in March 2019.
Future Africa’s mission is to invest early in mission-driven startups in Africa by connecting them with finance, coaching, and a community. The investment firm has created a foothold in six African countries in the last two years, including Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, and Nigeria. Future Africa provides “partners” i.e., investors, an opportunity to invest in African startups.
Future Africa offers potential investors two types of investment vehicles. The first is the Future Africa Fund with a minimum investment ticket of $25,000 which “enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk”. The second route is the Future Africa Collective which offers investors the opportunity to invest in specific startups “alongside the Future Africa team on a deal-by-deal basis through investment syndicates”. For an annual subscription of $1,000, partners are given access to “vetted and verified startups transforming Africa”.
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Future Africa and its partners invest in early-stage startups in a broad range of industries such as Education, Healthcare, Media, Financial Services and any other sector that the portfolio managers believe could shape Africa’s long-term future.
In his statement, Iyin noted that the African continent had a tremendous year in 2021, earning more than $4 billion in venture capital funding, a 15-fold increase over the 2015 level. In addition, the continent welcomed five unicorns in 2021, two of which are Future Africa portfolio companies – Andela and Flutterwave. Similarly, Future Africa’s portfolio grew to 75 companies in 2021 including Nexford University, Kwara, 54Gene, Kobo360, and Lori Systems, earning over $290 million in follow-up capital and totalling over $630 million in lifetime aggregate funding, valuing the company at over $3.5 billion, an outstanding success in view of the pandemic-related economic slowdown.
$30 Million Asset Under Management
Iyinoluwa stated that Assets Under Management hit $30 million, up from $600,000 in 2017. Also, Future Africa secured a 61% growth rate in the total number of members in its community of Angel investors referred to as “The future of Africa collective”, from 160 to 257 members as of the close of 2021. This has made Future Africa one of the largest communities of active investors across the continent.
