African founders gain new $84m seed fund as Ventures Platform closes oversubscribed round

Ventures Platform has closed its second institutional fund at $84 million, exceeding its original $75 million target and nearly matching the total raised by all six Africa-focused venture funds that reached final close in 2025. The final close of VP Pan-African Fund II was announced on August 26, 2026, according to Ventures Platform.

The fund is 1.8 times the size of the firm's first institutional fund, which closed at $46 million in December 2022. Despite the larger pool, Ventures Platform plans to back roughly the same number of companies but with significantly bigger cheques, targeting entry ownership stakes of 10 to 12 percent, per the firm's announcement.

Four new institutional limited partners joined at the final close: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Norway's development finance institution Norfund, the Dutch family office Alphatron, and the Ashesi University Foundation, alongside a consortium of new family offices. These investors join the group from the $64 million first close in November 2025, which included Nigeria's iDICE programme, the International Finance Corporation, Standard Bank, British International Investment, Proparco through the EU-backed Choose Africa programme, Egypt's MSMEDA, AfricaGrow, and Alder Tree Investment.

The fund's scale stands out against a difficult fundraising backdrop. In 2025, Africa-focused fund managers raised only $107 million across final closes in six funds, an 87 percent year-on-year decline by value, according to TechCabal citing African Private Capital Association data. VP Pan-African Fund II's $84 million final close sits just $23 million short of that combined total.

The fund will focus on early-stage African startups, primarily at seed stage while also catalysing Series A rounds, across sectors including fintech, healthcare, SaaS, agritech, edtech, and AI, with an emphasis on solutions addressing essential needs. TechCrunch reports that Fund II will write cheques of up to $3 million and deploy capital over the next three to four years.

Ventures Platform is expanding beyond its Nigerian base, with initial Fund II investments already made in five companies based in Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt, according to TechCrunch. BusinessDay Nigeria framed the close as Ventures Platform defying Africa's VC slump, noting the fund exceeded its target by $9 million.

Nigeria's iDICE programme participation in the first close marked the first time the government's digital and creative economy initiative invested in a local innovation-focused VC fund, signalling a shift toward domestic capital mobilisation as foreign development funding slows, TechCabal reported in February.

The fund was founded in 2016 by Kola Aina, who serves as founding partner. In a statement on the first close, he said: "When we launched this fund a year ago, we set a target of $75 million so this 1st closing is significant – a meaningful milestone in our journey to democratize prosperity in Africa through innovation and entrepreneurship."

DFI commitments include an EBRD approval of up to $8 million and a Norfund commitment of $6 million, according to BusinessDay. With deployment planned over three to four years, VP Pan-African Fund II positions Ventures Platform as one of the most active seed-stage investors on the continent through the current cycle.