Japanese Leapfrog Ventures launches USD 4.5 Mill. Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa

By Rawlexx79

One of the highlights in 2018, in terms of business funding – remains to be the significant funding being received from Europe and North America. For instance, a USD 70 Mill. fund launch of Partech Ventures has recently been ratified, together with a USD 76 Mill. funding commitment recently made by the French President. Hence, these activities continue to showcase the confidence that investors have in Africa’s innovative potential.

African start-ups are continuing to showcase their innovative prowess within the international community, and it is in this momentum that a major Japanese fund has shown an interest in tapping on these varied opportunities. In this regard, Tokyo headquartered Leapfrog Ventures has launched a USD 4.5 Mill. venture capital fund to invest in seed-stage start-ups within the Eastern African Community. The fund is stationed at Kigali, Rwanda for its African. The Japanese VC firm will look to invest in the range of USD 30-50K per start-up, and will focus on FinTech, HealthTech, Logistics, Agriculture, and Energy start-ups.

In a conversation with WeeTracker, Takuma Terakubo, CEO of Leapfrog Ventures, said,  “We want to make seed-stage investments in about a hundred start-ups in the next three years, and foster business alliances with Japanese companies wherever we find tech synergies.”

Along with the funding, the VC firm also has plans for incubating start-up businesses.

Whilst the core regions where the fund will actively invest in will be centred within the East African Community states of Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania – attention will also be given to South African start-ups.

However, Takuma also has a broader vision for Africa with this fund. He said, “with this move, we want to create entrepreneurs and utilise technology to solve human race issues and unite the world.”

Source: African Strategic-Ventures (ASV) & Wee-tracker