Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s leading seed-stage venture capital firms, has raised $84 million in its second institutional fund, VP Pan-African Fund II (VP PAF II), exceeding its $75 million target by $9 million.

The fund was oversubscribed and closed three years after Ventures Platform’s first institutional fund, signalling continued institutional interest in Africa’s technology ecosystem despite the more cautious global venture capital environment.

The Lagos-based venture capital firm, which has backed companies including Moniepoint, Nomba, Paystack, PiggyVest, Seamless Technologies (formerly SeamlessHR) and several other African startups, said it will use the new fund to increase its investments in companies from the earliest stages of development through their initial phase of expansion.

Ventures Platform said it would “double down on leading and catalysing pre-seed to Series A investments”, while retaining the capacity to provide additional funding to its strongest portfolio companies as they raise subsequent rounds.

“This fund is ultimately not about the capital we’ve raised, but about the entrepreneurs we’re privileged to be able to back,” Kola Aina, Founding and Managing Partner at Ventures Platform, said regarding the raise.

Where the money came from

The final close brings several new institutional investors into Ventures Platform’s limited partner (LP) base, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Norfund, Norway’s development finance institution, Alphatron and Ashesi University Foundation.

The fund also attracted a consortium of new family offices, further expanding the pool of institutional and private investors backing Ventures Platform’s pan-African investment strategy.

These investors join existing LPs that participated in the first close, including the Nigeria Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) programme, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, Standard Bank South Africa, British International Investment (BII), Proparco through the EU-backed Choose Africa VC programme, the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), AfricaGrow and Alder Tree Investment.

The new capital gives Ventures Platform a larger pool from which to identify and support African founders building technology-driven businesses targeting gaps in sectors such as financial services, healthcare, commerce and infrastructure.

“We’re deeply grateful for the confidence of our investors and excited to partner with ambitious founders solving meaningful problems across the continent,” Aina added.

How the fund would be deployed

Ventures Platform is expanding its investment focus beyond Nigeria as it seeks to put more capital into promising technology startups across Africa.

The firm has already deployed capital from Fund II into five companies based in Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. It plans to write cheques of up to $3 million and expects to deploy the fund over the next three to four years.

The strategy will focus on startups at the earliest stages of building their businesses, including companies that are developing their initial products and finding their first customers, as well as those that have gained traction and are preparing to scale.

The firm is also planning to take between 10 to 12 percent ownership stakes in the companies it backs, according to Aina in an interview with TechCabal.

“What we’re looking to do is invest with much deeper conviction, so much larger ticket sizes. We’re looking to target entry ownerships of between 10 and 12%. And then we want to be able to have reserve capital to double down on our winners.”

The strategy is informed by what Aina described as the biggest lesson from Ventures Platform’s previous fund: securing a meaningful ownership stake early is important because the value of a successful startup tends to rise as it grows.

The approach means Ventures Platform is not only looking to identify more startups but also to place larger bets on companies it believes have the potential to become major businesses, while reserving additional capital to increase its stake in those that perform strongly.

Confidence is returning to African startup funding

The oversubscribed fund provides another indication that institutional investors remain willing to commit capital to Africa’s technology ecosystem, even after the sharp correction that followed the startup funding boom of 2021 and 2022.

The $84 million Ventures Platform closed is just $23 million below the combined amount raised by all six African venture funds that closed in 2025.

The size of the fund also comes as African startup funding shows signs of recovering from the downturn of the past two years.

In 2021, Africa’s startup funding market experienced an exceptional boom, with funding jumping 309 percent from $1.09 billion in 2020 to $4.45 billion. The momentum continued in 2022, when startups across the continent raised a record $4.65 billion.

The market subsequently entered a sharp correction. Funding fell 37 percent to $2.92 billion in 2023 and declined another 23 percent to $2.24 billion in 2024 as investors became more cautious and shifted their focus towards profitability, stronger business fundamentals and more sustainable growth.

Funding began to recover in 2025, rising to $3.42 billion, while African startups raised about $1.44 billion in the first half of 2026. The H1 2026 figure was slightly above the $1.42 billion recorded in the same period of 2025, although the number of disclosed deals fell significantly, indicating that investors are concentrating more capital in fewer companies.

Against this backdrop, Ventures Platform’s ability to raise more than its target suggests that some institutional investors are becoming more comfortable with the long-term opportunity in African technology, even as they remain selective about the companies they back.

“We see tremendous potential in Africa’s technology ecosystem and look forward to working alongside the firm to help build enduring businesses, unlock new opportunities, and create lasting positive impact across the continent,” Jerry Jansen, Investment Manager, Alphatron, said.