Byld Ventures raises a $15 million fund, invests in fintechs in Africa

Byld Ventures, an investment firm focusing on early-stage funding for fintechs in Africa has made a new close of its $15 million fund launched in May, with a focus to back fintechs in the African ecosystem.

• The fund reached its first close in June and the second in August this year, at $10 million so far. It looks to have a final close by the year-end. The fund is supported by a number of athletes, the Dubai government, and a host of institutional investors.
• With the fund, the VC has invested in startups like Ceviant, an API-enabled and fully integrated treasury solution powered by data, including liquidity management, payments, foreign exchange, and trade services, Apata, Thepeer, a platform to send money across businesses, and Anchor, a Nigeria-based fintech offering banking-as-a-service (BaaS).
• Byld Ventures is specifically funding startups in the fintech segment with a focus on those building APIs and infrastructural plays. The fund will also deploy to startups solving the challenge of brain drain in Africa and repeat founders.
• The investment firm backs early-stage startups, investing as early as the pre-pitch deck. It aims to invest in up to 15 to 20 startups with its first fund, at $500,000 on average and 50% of the fund marked for follow-on investments.
• It is looking to fund fintech startups in Nigeria and Egypt where it has market experiences and also targets Ethiopia and Algeria for investments, it claims.