The Nigerian venture capital firm has exceeded its $75 million target, expanding its investment mandate beyond Nigeria as African startup funding becomes more selective.African early-stage venture capital firm Ventures Platform has closed its second institutional fund, VP Pan-African Fund II, at $84 million, exceeding its original $75 million target as it expands its investment strategy across more African markets.
The oversubscribed fund is nearly twice the size of Ventures Platform’s first institutional fund, which closed at $46 million in 2022. The latest raise will give the firm more capital to invest in early-stage technology companies across the continent, with a broader geographic mandate and a larger capacity to support startups through later stages of growth.
The firm plans to invest across pre-seed, seed and pre-Series A stages, with individual investments of up to $3 million. Ventures Platform has already deployed capital from Fund II into five companies in Kenya, South Africa and Egypt, marking a broader geographic push beyond its traditional Nigerian base. It expects to deploy the fund over the next three to four years.
From a $64 Million First Close to $84 Million
The final close follows a $64 million first close announced in November 2025, when Ventures Platform set a $75 million target for the fund.
At the time, about 70% of the limited partners from its first institutional fund indicated interest in returning, while new and existing investors included the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Standard Bank, British International Investment, Proparco through the EU-backed Choose Africa programme, Egypt’s MSMEDA, AfricaGrow, Nigeria’s iDICE programme and European family offices including Alder Tree Investment.
The International Finance Corporation had separately approved a $6 million equity investment in Ventures Platform Fund II, according to its project disclosure. IFC described the fund as focused on seed-stage, technology-enabled companies across Africa, with Nigeria as a particular focus.
The final close adds several new institutional investors, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Norfund, Dutch family office Alphatron and Ashesi University Foundation, alongside additional family-office capital.
EBRD separately confirmed an $8 million investment in Fund II, its first commitment to a pan-African venture capital fund focused on opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. The bank said the fund will invest in early-stage technology companies, with particular attention to Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal.
A Bigger Bet on African Founders
The new fund represents a significant expansion of Ventures Platform’s original strategy.
Its 2022 fund focused primarily on pre-seed and seed investments. Fund II gives the firm greater room to lead and catalyse Series A rounds, allowing it to continue supporting companies beyond their earliest fundraising stages.
Ventures Platform says it is looking for companies using technology to solve essential problems, address infrastructure gaps, expand access to products and services, and create new categories of consumption.Its investment interests include fintech, healthcare, SaaS, agritech, edtech and artificial intelligence, among other sectors.
AI has become an increasingly important part of the firm’s thesis. Founding partner Kola Aina said Ventures Platform is particularly interested in applications where AI can change the economics of serving African markets rather than simply functioning as another product feature.
The firm is looking for situations where AI can reduce the cost of delivering services, address labour shortages or enable fundamentally different business models.
The Next Phase of African Venture Capital
African venture capital has entered a more disciplined period following the funding boom of the early 2020s. According to TechCrunch, African startups have raised about $930 million across more than 200 deals so far this year, compared with $1.16 billion across 447 deals in 2025.For fund managers, raising capital has consequently become more difficult. Aina said limited partners are asking tougher questions around portfolio performance, liquidity, portfolio construction, manager discipline and differentiation.
The shift means investors are increasingly looking beyond the size of a fund or the attractiveness of the African market itself and asking whether a particular manager can consistently identify strong companies and generate returns.
That environment makes the successful close of Fund II notable, particularly because 70% of Fund I’s LPs returned for the second fund. Ventures Platform says its combination of local market knowledge and international networks is becoming increasingly important as African venture markets mature.
Building on a Decade of Investing
Ventures Platform was founded in 2016 by Kola Aina and has built a portfolio that includes some of Africa’s better-known technology companies.Its portfolio has included companies such as Paystack, PiggyVest, Moniepoint, OmniRetail, Raenest, Remedial Health, Fez Delivery and Credable, among others. The firm’s website currently lists more than 75 active portfolio companies, 140 founders and operations across six or more countries.
Its first institutional fund, closed at $46 million in 2022, was backed by investors including IFC, British International Investment, Proparco, AfricaGrow and Standard Bank. Ventures Platform said at the time that the fund had already made more than 60 investments across fintech, healthtech, edtech, agritech, enterprise SaaS, digital infrastructure and other sectors.Fund II now gives the firm substantially more capital and a wider geographic mandate to build on that record.
For African founders, the expansion also signals that institutional investors remain willing to commit significant capital to the continent despite the broader slowdown in venture funding, but with greater emphasis on strong fundamentals, governance, capital efficiency and businesses capable of surviving different funding cycles.
