Flat6Labs Nurturing More Than 160 Early-Stage African Startups

Flat6Labs. (COURTESY PHOTO) Flat6Labs. (COURTESY PHOTO)
<center>Flat6Labs. (COURTESY PHOTO)</center>

Flat6Labs’ new USD$95 million (roughly UGX358 billion) Seed Fund to nurture the growth and development of early-stage African tech startups.

Flat6Labs has a proven track record in carefully vetting out and investing in promising startups in North Africa since it was founded 12 years ago. It has more than USD$16 million (approx. UGX60.3 billion) invested in startups, and over US$191M (approx. UGX71.6 billion) raised in follow-on funding while creating more than 2,500 direct jobs and 80,000 indirect jobs through its first two funds in Egypt and Tunisia.

The Africa Seed Fund (ASF) will focus on three main investment territories in Africa: North Africa, West Africa, and East Africa. The Fund will be led by Ramez El-Serafy and Dina el-Shenoufy as General Partners for the fund.

“Africa is one of the most exciting regions to invest in tech and innovation, with huge untapped potential and unique business opportunities,” said Ramez El-Serafy, General Partner for Africa Seed Fund. “We will leverage our experience and knowledge to guide the startup founders to create truly scalable, investment-ready, Africa-based companies.”

It is looking to invest in more than 160 early-stage startups over the next five years that operate in the technology sector in Africa, with a focus on impactful sectors that accelerate digital inclusion through the use of information technologies and industries contributing to addressing social and environmental challenges, such as HealthTech, FinTech, EdTech, GreenTech, AgriTech, ClimateTech, and other sectors.

The significant influx of capital from the Africa Seed Fund has the potential to create more than 14,000 jobs, provide support to more than 1,200 founders with 20% female participation, and generate revenue of more than US$700M.

The Africa Seed Fund (ASF) is being established by Flat6Labs with the support of the GIZ on behalf of the German Government and through the Egyptian Agricultural Innovation Project (AIP) and Scaling Digital Agricultural Innovations through Startups project (SAIS).

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