Verod Kepple Ventures Closes First Fund At USD 60 M

Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) has announced that it has closed its first fund at USD 60 M. Key institutional investors in the fund include SBI Holdings, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Japan International Corporation Agency, and Japan ICT Fund. New investors joining the final close include SCM Capital, formerly known as Sterling Capital Markets Limited, from Nigeria and a few additional institutional investors from Japan, including Taiyo Holdings and C2C Global Education Japan. 

With a focus on growth stage companies, VKAV seeks to tackle the growing gap of funding available, particularly from locally-based investors, for companies moving to Series A and B stages in Africa, The fund will focus on 3 key themes: companies building digital infrastructure across different sectors; inefficiency solvers who are solving for friction primarily between businesses or between businesses and consumers; and market creators who are creating economic opportunities for people, based on the changing dynamics of the overall African economy and demographics.

The fund has so far backed 12 companies including, Moove Africa, KOKO Networks, Ceviant, Chari, Shuttlers, Nawy, Julaya, NowPay, Chefaa, Cloudline, Zone, and mTek-Services.