We invest where the constraint is structural — payments that settle, credit priced on cash flow, goods that arrive, power that stays on. These are unglamorous businesses with long compounding curves, and they are what we underwrite.
Consumer internet in emerging markets grew on top of systems that were never designed for it. A merchant can now accept a card, but settlement still takes days, reconciliation is manual and credit is priced against collateral rather than transaction history.
These gaps are not bugs in a market — they are the market. The companies that close them sell to other businesses, carry recurring revenue, and become the default layer that the next generation of applications is forced to build on. That is a venture-scale outcome with far less consumer risk than another marketplace.
We have a written view of each sector and a map of the companies in it. If you are building something that does not fit one of these, we will tell you quickly — and often introduce you to a firm that specialises in it.
The plumbing behind money movement: acceptance, settlement, ledgers, identity, compliance tooling and cross-border corridors.
Underwriting that uses cash flow, transaction data or supply-chain relationships instead of collateral that most businesses do not have.
The physical layer of digital commerce: fulfilment, first and middle mile, inventory financing and the software independents run on.
Distributed generation, metering and asset finance for the 600 million people and millions of businesses without reliable grid power.
Operating systems for fragmented industries — healthcare, agriculture, pharmacy, education — where the workflow itself is the moat.
Clarity saves everyone time. We rarely invest below the listed boundaries, and we say so in the first call rather than the fourth.
We are not looking for a finished company. We are looking for evidence that the founder has found something real and is unusually well placed to serve it.
Regulation, infrastructure or a distribution shift creates a window. We want to see why this company can win now, not in five years.
Operator experience in the sector, a distribution relationship, a licence, or a technical insight that others cannot copy in a quarter.
Paying customers, repeat usage, gross margin above 45%, and a clear contribution margin per account. Pilot purgatory is not a business.
At our entry price, a realistic exit must still return the fund. We walk away from good companies priced for someone else's return.
| Parameter | Pre-seed | Seed | Series A (follow-on) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheque sizeInitial or follow-on | $250K – $750K | $750K – $3M | $2M – $5M |
| Target ownershipFully diluted | 8 – 12% | 10 – 15% | Maintain or extend |
| Company stageWhat must already exist | Product live, first design partners | $500K+ ARR, repeatable sales | $3M+ ARR, institutional round |
| BoardGovernance | Observer rights | One board seat | Seat or observer, per round |
| GeographyWhere we are active | Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Mexico, Indonesia | Same, plus South Africa | Portfolio follow-on only |
Indicative parameters. Every investment is subject to investment committee approval, legal documentation and availability of capital.
If you are building the payments, credit, logistics, energy or software rails of an emerging market, we would like to meet you — whether you are raising today or twelve months from now.
