Enza Capital, an African multi-stage venture investor that supports technology companies in sub-Saharan Africa, has closed $58 million across two rounds, as it launches its founder partner program.
The VC firm announced that the launch of the partner program is one way of cementing trust and belief with founders while committing to building long-term and mutually beneficial partnerships above and beyond traditional venture capital structures.
Also, the program will enable the founders and leadership team of its portfolio companies to become co-owners of the firm.
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Co-founder and General Partner at Enza Capital, John Lazar said,
“The founder partner program fosters alignment and collaboration. It increases the likelihood of success across all stakeholders in the venture capital structure, ranging from LPs and investors to management teams, and extends to the ultimate beneficiaries of the products or services developed by these enterprises. We truly believe in shared ownership, and we can empathize with leadership teams.”
Enza Capital which launched an early-stage fund in 2019, to help build category-defining startups in the pre-seed and seed stages announced that the fund is still active and has invested in health startups, climate tech, logistics, and Fintech startups.
The multi-stage investor disclosed that it is still focused on these industries in its second fund launched this year.
The company’s co-founder Mike Mompi disclosed that the firm has made 38 investments in 31 companies from both funds. These investments span 8 markets across Africa which include Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Ivory Coast, and Senegal.
Speaking on Enza’s Capital investment vehicles function, Mompi said,
“We have sufficient capital to write meaningful checks. Sometimes, we’re going in early and also follow-on in our companies. Then we have the growth fund, which is mostly a later-stage vehicle, where we can invest at any stage and co-invest with the core funds in existing portfolio companies, thereby staying with our companies for a long time”.
Enza Capital’s typical check size in its portfolio companies includes firms such as SeamlessHR, Shara, Autochek, Peach Payments, JUMBA, Nash, and Cloudline, amongst others.
The VC firm is committed to building for Africa, with its focus on startups in various sectors such as Fintech, Logistics and Mobility, Human Capital Management, Education, Energy, and climate-smart solutions. Its investment stage includes Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, and Series B.
Enza Capital has a clear reserve policy and follow-on strategy where the company reserves significant capital to follow on into portfolio companies it has already backed.
Although not every company receives a follow-on investment. From its Fund, the company made at least one follow-on investment into 12 of the 23 companies that it backed.
Also, the VC firm has a dedicated Growth Fund that can invest up to $20m per company in follow-on investments, this vehicle is reserved for existing Enza Capital portfolio companies that are on high growth trajectories and have a qualified demand for significant capital to scale.
Enza Capital has an office in Nairobi, its eight-person team is dispersed across the city, Johannesburg, London, and New York. General Partner Mompi disclosed that the firm might open offices in Lagos and a Francophone African city to support its portfolio companies in those markets.
As a result, the company will employ more talent to work closely with these ventures across various departments. Until now, Enza Capital has provided value in the technical department, where its CTO-in-Residence assists startups’ engineering and tech teams pre- and post-investment.
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