Norrsken Foundation has reportedly teamed up with thirty unicorn founders and private equity and venture capital investors to set up a $200 million fund to support the startup firms in Africa.
The fund, labeled as Norrsken22 African Tech Growth Fund, has apparently raised capital worth $110 million, post securing $139 million in another funding round started for European startups in the previous year.
As per credible reports, Hans Otterling, partner at U.K based VC firm Northzone, who led the investment round in Klarna, Adalberth’s former firm, is Norrsken’s founding partner alongside the Klarna co-founder.
The Norrsken22 African Tech Growth Fund has received investment from prominent giants like Natalie Kolbe, ex-global head of private equity at Actis, along with Lexi Novitske and Ngetha Waithaka, former managing partners at Acuity Ventures Platform.
Imperatively, the African Venture Capital funding reached a benchmark, after surpassing a capital of over $4 billion, which is more than the funding raised by startups in two years in the continent. The progress has been largely propelled by the growth and late-stage deals, like over $100 million funding from unicorns like Chipper Cash, OPay, Andela Flutterwave and other firms.
According to sources, besides the issue of late-stage checks and slow growth, the other concern remains that the big deals are generally financed by international VCs, as the regional investors often focus on Series A to pre-seed investments with micro-medium funds.
Therefore, the international investors support the African companies with their investments but, lack the local knowledge to help escalate businesses throughout Africa.
Novitske, Ex-Managing Partner at Acuity Ventures Platform, stated that Norrsken22 is the growth-stage, regional firm which will support startups to unlock major partnerships to enhance revenue, pitch in the best talent and facilitate development plans throughout Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Source Credits:- https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/30/norrsken-vcs-and-30-unicorn-founders-set-up-200m-fund-to-back-growth-stage-startups-in-africa/