The Largest VC Firms in Africa

The PIC is a long-term investor. Our investment strategy is designed to take into consideration a long-term view of the macro environment. The PIC’s main investment objectives are to achieve strong long-term capital returns above clients’ benchmarks. This is supported by robust risk management while contributing to the broader social and economic development of South Africa and the rest of Africa. Our strategy includes building a portfolio around our clients’ requirements, diversified by sector, geography, duration and size. The PIC follows a robust investment strategy that stems from its investment philosophy across all asset classes.

EQT is a global investment organization focused on active ownership and thematic investing across private capital, infrastructure, and real estate, from early-stage ventures to large-cap buyouts.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited operates as a holding company. The Company provides internet infrastructure, e-commerce, online financial, and internet content services through its subsidiaries. Alibaba Group Holding offers its products and services worldwide.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is a specialized financial partner for the innovation economy, serving startups from pre-seed to IPO, as well as venture capital and private equity investors globally.

Lendable is a technology-enabled investment platform providing debt and financing solutions to high-growth fintech companies and impact alternatives in emerging and frontier markets.

Novo Holdings A/S is the holding and investment company responsible for managing the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, one of the world's largest enterprise foundations. Established in 1999, the company is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with offices in London, San Francisco, Boston, Singapore, and Shanghai. As of 2024, Novo Holdings manages total assets of DKK 1,060 billion (€142 billion). The company's primary objective is to improve people's health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. To achieve this, Novo Holdings invests in life science companies at all stages of development and manages a diversified portfolio that includes equities, bonds, real estate, infrastructure assets, and private equity investments. In 2024, Novo Holdings reported record total income and investment returns of DKK 60 billion (€8.0 billion), driven by strong performances from its investment portfolio and the Novo Group companies. A significant recent development was the completion of a $16.5 billion acquisition of Catalent, a contract drug manufacturer, in December 2024. This strategic move aims to bolster the production of Wegovy, a popular weight-loss drug, to meet increasing demand. Novo Holdings' investment areas include life science investments, capital investments, and planetary health investments, with a focus on regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia. The company's guiding principles emphasize high performance with respect and responsibility, an ambitious strategy focused on return-driven investments, and excellence in operations, including talent development and strong governance.

Stonehage Fleming is one of the world’s leading independently owned family offices. We advise on over USD55bn of assets on behalf of around 250 families whom we serve from 11 offices in 8 geographies. We help international families manage their wealth and protect their legacy for generations to come. Pioneers founded us. Pioneers have always been our clients. Pioneers continue to inspire us today. We draw particular inspiration from clients who have created business opportunities where competitors failed to keep pace with changing customer needs.

Established in 1915, Naspers has transformed itself into a global consumer internet company and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Through Prosus, the group operates and invests globally in markets with long-term growth potential, building leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities. Prosus has its primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Naspers is the majority owner of Prosus. In South Africa, Naspers is one of the foremost investors in the technology sector and is committed to building its internet and ecommerce companies. These include Takealot, Mr D Food, Superbalist, Autotrader, Property24 and PayU, and Media24, South Africa’s leading print and digital media business. Naspers has a primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (NPN.SJ), a secondary listing on the A2X Exchange (NPN.AJ) in South Africa, and has a level 1 American Depository Receipt (ADR) programme which trades on an over-the-counter basis in the United States of America. For more information, please visit www.naspers.com.

TenOneTen Ventures is a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm that invests early in technical teams transforming major industries like healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing using AI and data.

Siobahn Visconti, LP is a Private Equity firm investing in cryptocurrencies, FOREX, niche staffing, commercial real estate; acts as a government and regulated industry lobbyist plus fundraiser and bundler for political campaigns. Offers limited Financial Services and Insurance for individuals and companies. Without prejudice, UCC 1-308.

Entrepreneurs First invests in exceptional individuals to build startups from scratch. We bring together talented outliers to develop their most ambitious ideas and raise money from the world’s best investors. Since pioneering Talent Investing in 2014, we’ve learned to recognize individuals with extraordinary futures before anyone else, embedding them in a community of ambitious peers and giving them the tools they need to succeed, fast. We back them before they have a company, a team, even before they have an idea, based purely on talent. The startups cofounded on our programs are now worth over $10B, and include Tractable, Magic Pony Technology, Cleo, La Vie, Aztec, Sonantic, and many more. EF is backed by some of the world's leading founders and investors, including Patrick and John Collison (Stripe); Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Tom Blomfield (GoCardless and Monzo), Sara Clemens (Whatnot and Twitch); Demis Hassabis (Google Deepmind); and Matt Mullenweg (Wordpress). We exist to make great companies happen that otherwise wouldn’t. For more information about Entrepreneur First, visit www.joinef.com We're hiring! Join our global team and experience firsthand the workings of a globally unique talent investor working with cutting edge entrepreneurs on world changing technologies:

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, and Health sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 400 companies globally, including Snap, Affirm, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, MuleSoft, OYO, Guardant, and GrubHub. Lightspeed and its affiliates currently manage $10.5B across the global Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India, China, Southeast Asia and Europe.

Kleiner Perkins is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. They were early investors in many significant companies, including Amazon, AOL, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Google, Intuit, Macromedia, Netscape, Segway, and Sun Microsystems.For five decades, Kleiner Perkins has partnered with some of the most ingenious founders in technology and life sciences, helping them make history with their bold ideas. Through twenty venture funds and four growth funds, we’ve invested $10 billion in hundreds of companies including pioneers such as Amazon, Genentech, and Google. Today, Kleiner Perkins continues to help founders and their bold ideas make history investing in companies like Desktop Metal, IronNet, Ring, Spotify, Slack, and Peloton.The firm's four founding partners were Eugene Kleiner, Tom Perkins, Frank J. Caufield, and Brook Byers.

ARCH invests primarily in companies co-founded with leading scientists and entrepreneurs, concentrating on bringing to market innovations in life sciences. They enjoy special recognition as a leader in the successful commercialization of technologies developed at academic research institutions and national laboratories. ARCH has raised ten venture funds totaling over $3 billion and has invested in the earliest venture capital rounds for more than 150 companies. ARCH investors include major corporations, pension funds, endowment funds, financial institutions, and private investors.

a16z crypto is a venture capital fund that invests in crypto and web3 startups. We have over $7.6 billion assets under management across four funds, and have been investing in web3 – across all stages – since 2013, under the direction of founding general partner Chris Dixon, as part of Andreessen Horowitz.

Norwest Venture Partners is a leading Silicon-Valley based venture capital and growth equity investment firm managing $7.5 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies. The firm invests in early to late stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare.We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders advance on their journey.We are proud to have backed entrepreneurs at Apigee, Casper, FireEye, Jet, Kendra Scott, and Udemy among others.Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel.

Satya Capital is an independent investment firm that focuses on identifying high-potential opportunities in private equity, public equities, credit, and venture capital. The firm has a strong geographic focus on Africa and other frontier markets, while also investing globally. It targets various sectors, including fintech, consumer and retail, healthcare, education, agriculture, technology, media, telecommunications, and financial services. The team at Satya Capital brings a wealth of financial, strategic, and operational expertise, including experience from building the pan-African mobile operator Celtel.The firm adopts an investment philosophy that combines profit with purpose, emphasizing strong impact narratives and corporate governance. Satya Capital partners with entrepreneurs and businesses to provide growth capital, leveraging its team's direct operating experience to enhance value creation. Collaborations with TPG Growth and TPG RISE highlight its commitment to growth and impact investing, while its boutique structure allows for personalized engagement with investors.

Vertex is a global network of venture capital funds. The Vertex network of funds invests in early stage opportunities in technology through Vertex Ventures and healthcare through Vertex Ventures HC, and growth stage opportunities through Vertex Growth. Each of the Vertex Ventures funds in Israel, USA, China, and SEA & India operate independently, with separate local teams that raise and manage respective funds independently.Vertex Holdings is an anchor investor in each of the Vertex funds, namely: Vertex Ventures China, Vertex Ventures USA, Vertex Ventures Israel, Vertex Ventures SEA & India, Vertex Ventures HC, and Vertex Growth. Vertex Holdings is owned by Temasek Holdings.

Canaan is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionaries with transformative ideas. While we love speedy success, we're acutely aware that greatness comes in many forms and at different times. That's why we're not afraid to break the mold to bring something spectacular to life. Our approach is personal. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach, but there are a few absolutes intrinsic to who we are and how we work. And these values weren’t contrived out of thin air, they’re hard earned over the past 30 years and counting. 01 High performance, low ego. The old adage “actions speak louder than words” rings true within Canaan’s walls, and in our interactions with companies out in the wild. Words like "understated" and "effective" are often used to describe our partners, and that’s fine by us. We’ll leave the bragging to the others. “Seasoned investors can be very arrogant, but Canaan is no BS, unassuming, and humble—no hysteria, no angst.” — Michael Gilman, CEO Arrakis 02 People are more than statistics. A diverse team means we bring varied perspectives to the table. And that table welcomes out-of-the-box thinking, spirited debate, and people from all walks of life. It’s our individual backgrounds and interests that inform our collective approach, which spans industries, generations, and coasts. In short, our diversity is who we are and what we do. 03 We ask for help, and so should you. We firmly believe that two heads are better than one. So while our investors thrive in 1:1 partnerships, our companies also have the support of the entire Canaan team whenever, wherever. Recruiting your executive team? We’ll mobilize our full network. Need operational advice to bring a product to market? We’ll connect you with the right partner or colleague. Our resources are yours. “Even if Canaan hadn’t funded us, just going through the process with them – the discussions we had and the questions they asked – already made us a better company. And that’s amazing.” — Julie Wainwright, CEO The RealReal 04 The Golden Rule still applies. We treat you like we treat ourselves—with respect, transparency, and honesty—even if it’s sometimes not what you want to hear. It’s this approach that makes our portfolio companies more like family, because we’re not afraid to get in the weeds and help solve big hairy problems. In fact, it’s what we live for. We’re acutely aware that our success hinges on your success, so we do what it takes. “We made big strategic shifts as a company and worked closely with Maha through all of them. Canaan is really smart about the way they get involved and how they support you through good times and bad.” — Kevin Chou, former CEO Kabam 05 We're in the know, not in the way. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t hands-on, but we also know when to step back and let you soar. Our goal is to add value to your process, and help you grow in ways you couldn’t alone. That’s why you’ll never see us booking meetings just to check a box or “see how are things are going.” We’ll already know, because that’s the kind of relationship we have with our companies. Balance, diversity and passion are at the core of who we are. Meet the hardworking people who defy convention, shatter glass ceilings, and take companies to the top — all with a unique style and a healthy dose of humor.

Forbion is a global venture capital firm dedicated to advancing groundbreaking biotech innovations and sustainable solutions in human health and the bioeconomy, managing over €5bn across 11 funds.

As a multi-stage venture capital firm,Oak focuses on high-growth opportunities in the Information Technology, Internet and Consumer, Financial Services Technology, Healthcare Information and Services, and Clean Energy sectors. Our goal is to help dynamic companies transform the way business is done.Since 1978, the firm has invested $9 billion in over 525 companies around the world, earning the trust of entrepreneurs with a senior team that delivers steady guidance, deep domain expertise and a consistent investment philosophy. We are involved in the formation of companies, fund spinouts of operating divisions and technology assets, and provide growth equity to mid- and late-stage private businesses and to public companies through PIPE investments.Over the course of our more than four decades of building companies and spurring progress, we have continually helped innovators take advantage of new business opportunities and anticipate trends through long-term relationships that weather the changing economic landscape. The firm seeks significant opportunities that, through innovation, have the potential to dislocate markets. We measure our accomplishments by the success of our portfolio companies and our ability to deliver consistent performance over time.

Since 1999, Redpoint Ventures has partnered with visionary founders to create new markets and redefine existing ones. The firm invests in startups across the seed, early and growth phases. Redpoint has backed over 465 companies with 140 IPOs and M+As, including 2U, HomeAway, Heroku, Netflix, PureStorage, Twilio and Zendesk, and incubated market disruptors like Android. In total, the firm manages $4 billion across multiple funds. Redpoint is based in Menlo Park and has offices in San Francisco, Beijing and Shanghai.

Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is a $4B venture capital firm that funds consumer, enterprise and healthcare startups around the world, from seed stage to growth. BVP funded the early stages of Pinterest, Blue Apron, Skype, Skybox Imaging, Twitch and Periscope and helped build 117 IPOs including Twilio, Yelp, LinkedIn, Shopify and Wix.

Established in 1996, VantagePoint Capital Partners is a global venture investor supporting companies from start-up to scale-up with a special focus on energy innovation and efficiency.

EQT Life Sciences, formerly LSP, is one of Europe’s largest and most experienced Life Sciences investors, targeting innovative companies in therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, and healthtech. With over 30 years of experience and approximately €3.5 billion raised, they provide capital and strategic guidance to inventors aiming to improve patient lives.