Mia von Koschitzky-Kimani isn’t your typical venture capitalist. She didn’t come up through Silicon Valley or Wall Street, and she doesn’t fit the mold of the perpetually pontificating, tweet-happy investor.
Instead, she built her career across continents, from Europe to Africa, combining strategic consulting with entrepreneurship before settling into the venture capital world.
Today, as Managing Partner at Future Africa; one of the continent’s prominent tech funders, she plays a crucial role in shaping the firm’s investment strategy, bringing a mix of analytical thinking, operational nous, and a pragmatic view on what it really takes to build great companies in Africa.
A Less-Travelled Road to VC
Born in Germany and educated in Switzerland and Harvard, Mia didn’t always know she wanted this path but figures being part of a tremendous growth story has always appealed to her.
“I wanted to be in a region where I could witness and contribute to real change,” she recalls. “Asia was already well on its way. Africa, on the other hand, still had so much potential that wasn’t being fully realised.”
That thinking led her to Nairobi in 2009, where she took an unconventional route: Working for a local entrepreneur instead of following her peers into corporate or banking.
Mia later re-joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG) after a prior stint pre-MBA, helping establish their presence in South Africa and Kenya. But while she loved strategy consulting, she quickly realised that the kinds of large corporations BCG typically worked with didn’t really exist in East Africa yet. “We needed to first build those companies before we could consult for them,” she tells WT.
So Mia decided to build one herself. Her first startup, DukaConnect, was an early AI-powered point-of-sale system designed for informal retailers. “It was before AI was cool,” she says with a laugh.
“Most small shops in Africa don’t have barcodes or structured inventory systems, so we created an image recognition system that could track sales without disrupting their workflow.”
The startup caught the attention of Mastercard, which acquired it in 2018 amid some co-founder differences, giving Mia firsthand experience in scaling and exiting a company.
Running a startup also gave her a front-row seat to the brutal realities of early-stage entrepreneurship. “Raising money is hard. But even harder is making sure your founding team is aligned,” she reflects. “You can have the best investors, the best product, but if the founders can’t work together, nothing else matters.” It was a lesson that would shape her.
Yet, her journey wasn’t solely about entrepreneurship. As familial ties and personal passions took hold—she met her Kenyan husband, raised four children, and even qualified in competitive master swimming—Mia’s perspective on venture capital began to shift.
“I realised that the same care I put into nurturing my family could be applied to startups,” she reflects with a wry smile. “Running a venture fund is a lot like parenting. You must be tough, yet caring. You push for performance while making sure your ‘kids’ have skin in the game.”
Pragmatic Playbook
Mia’s transition to venture capital wasn’t immediate. After selling her startup and following a stint at Mastercard post-DukaConnect acquisition, she joined Persistent Energy Capital, a firm focused on investing in early-stage renewable energy startups.
“I was drawn to venture capital because it allowed me to combine my love for data and strategic thinking with the thrill of building companies at scale,” Mia tells WT.
For her, Persistent Energy Capital was a good fit in some ways, but it also revealed a gap in the market. “Climate investing was picking up, but I wasn’t convinced it was the only place capital should go,” she says.
Around the same time, she joined Future Africa’s investment collective, where she met Iyinoluwa Aboyeji of Andela and Flutterwave fame, the firm’s founder. Their partnership was an unlikely but complementary one.
“E is very visionary, very instinct-driven,” Mia explains. “I, on the other hand, love data. I need to see the numbers, how the business works, the financial model.” Their contrasting styles have helped shape Future Africa’s unique investment thesis, balancing bold bets with financial discipline.
Mia also suggested that unlike many venture capital (VC) firms in Africa that rely heavily on Development Finance Institution (DFI) capital, Future Africa takes a different approach. “A lot of impact investors focus on ‘social good’ without thinking about scale,” Mia points out.
“But if a company only reaches 1,000 rural people and can’t grow sustainably, it’s not actually impactful in the long run.” Future Africa’s focus, she emphasises, is on backing high-impact, commercially viable startups that can scale across Africa and beyond.
Hard Realities and Emerging Trends
Mia is quick to acknowledge that the African VC market is maturing, but not without challenges. One of the most striking trends in 2024 is the sharp decline in early-stage funding.
Just three years ago, early-stage capital made up 31% of total funding. Today, it’s down to just 9%, as captured in the recently released 2024 African VC Report, the product of a collaboration between WT and Mia’s firm, Future Africa.
“A lot of early-stage funds have simply died,” she says bluntly. “They were too small for DFIs, didn’t have the track record for commercial investors, and couldn’t raise follow-on capital.”
As a result, accelerator checks are often one of the very few early-stage funding options and many founders have resorted to jumping from accelerator to accelerator, collecting small grants but never really building sustainable businesses, Mia observes, noting that this disconnect led her and Aboyeji to establish Accelerate Africa; an accelerator that prioritises revenue and scale over funding and equity.
“We see it all the time. Startups taking USD 50 K here, USD 100 K there, but never securing enough capital to build out their model and actually scale,” she says. It’s a cycle that threatens to leave a dangerous funding gap, making it harder for the next generation of great startups to emerge.
Another major shift is the rise of debt financing, particularly in East Africa. “It’s interesting because DFIs, who are supposed to be the biggest risk-takers, are now focusing more on debt rather than equity,” Mia observes. While debt can be a useful tool, she warns that for many startups, it’s still extremely difficult to access at reasonable rates.
Meanwhile, fintech remains the dominant sector, but climate tech is rapidly gaining ground. “DFIs are channelling huge amounts of capital into climate startups, often at the expense of sectors like education and healthcare,” she notes. While she sees the value in climate investments, she cautions against overcorrecting. “We can’t afford to ignore foundational sectors just because climate is trendy right now.”
The Founder-Investor Relationship
Mia’s approach to working with founders is direct, almost parental; a style that has earned her the nickname “Mama Mia” in the Future Africa portfolio. “I push them hard,” she admits. “But I also care deeply about them as people, not just as companies.”
Her approach is a blend of meticulous analysis and intuitive judgment. “I’m not the type to just rely on gut feel,” Mia asserts. “I love digging into the numbers, understanding financial models, and forecasting market trends. But I also know that sometimes the best decisions come from trusting that instinct honed over years of experience.” This duality—analytical rigour paired with an instinct for people and markets—is at the heart of her approach.
Mia believes one of the biggest misconceptions about VC in Africa is that investors are just sitting on piles of money, ready to hand it out. “The truth is, raising a fund is just as hard as raising startup capital,” she explains. “It’s not my money, I have to return it to investors. So when we invest, we need to see real potential for growth.”
One of her biggest red flags? Founders who have put in none of their own money and at the same time demand high salaries before proving their model works and the companies are profitable. “If you’re not willing to put skin in the game, why should we?” she asks.
For all the challenges, Mia remains optimistic about the future of African VC. She believes the next wave of great companies will come from founders who understand financial discipline and build for scale from day one. She’s also excited about underhyped sectors, like creative tech, which has the potential to reshape Africa’s digital economy.
Asked what she hopes to achieve in the next decade, she keeps it simple: “I want to help build an ecosystem that produces globally competitive companies, companies that don’t just survive but thrive.”
With her data-driven approach, shrewd pragmatism, and commitment to founders, Mia does look on track.