FUNDING | French VC, Breega, Launches Inaugural $75 Million Fund to Invest in Early-Stage Startups Across Africa

French VC firm, Breega, has announced the launch of its first African fund, Breega Africa Seed I, which aims to become the leading early-stage investor in African startups.

The firm has now opened two new offices in Lagos, Nigeria, and Cape Town, South Africa, to manage its new pan-African fund Breega Africa Seed I.

Endowed with $75 million, the fund will invest in ventures in Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya, as well as several French-speaking African countries such as Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Breega intends to invest amounts ranging from $100,000 to $2 million USD, positioning itself as the initial investor. The focus will be on high-impact, sustainable innovations aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), targeting key sectors such as:

• agri-tech
• Ed-tech
• E–health
• Fintech
• Insurtech
• Prop-tech, and
• Logistics

Several of the continent’s leading startups, such as:

• Numida
• Socium
• Klasha
• Kwara
• Coachbit, and
• Sava

have already received initial investments and support from Breega’s in-house scaling team.

The new fund is led by Melvyn Lubega, Co-Founder of the digital education unicorn Go1, and Tosin Faniro-Dada, former CEO of Endeavor in Nigeria. Lubega will oversee Breega’s operations in Eastern and Southern Africa from the Cape Town office.

“Today, Africa receives one per cent of global funding for a region which is home to 18 per cent of the population of the planet. This is a large funding gap to close across a continent at the dawn of its technological potential. Breega, an international fund for founders built by founders, has a unique role to play in bridging this gap,” Lubega said.

Faniro-Dada is the partner in charge of West and North Africa, who will contribute her experience, notably as a board member of African fintech unicorn, Flutterwave.

“Africa is experiencing a boom in entrepreneurship, reflecting a surge of innovation and ambition across the continent. Our entrepreneurs are driven by the ambition to find solutions to the continent’s challenges. It is truly inspiring and I’m thrilled to be able to support them thanks to the unique model we’ve developed at Breega,” she said.