In July 2021, Nigerian fintech startup, TeamApt, announced its Series B round with participation from Global Ventures, Oui Capital, Kepple Africa Ventures, Gbenga Oyebode, and a few other angel investors and VCs.
Today, one of the investors in that round – Oui Capital – is announcing the launch of its $30 million fund called the Oui Capital Mentors Fund II.
The fund has a mix of local and international investors, including Vibe Capital, D Global Ventures, One Way Ventures, Ground Squirrel Ventures, Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, and Tokunboh Ismael. Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO of TeamApt and Gbenga Oyebode, an investor in TeamApt, complete the list.
In 2018, Olu Oyinsan, Managing Partner of Oui Capital, left his job as Vice President of Investments at Ingressive Capital to start a VC firm with Francesco Andreoli.
The following year, Oui Capital officially launched with a $10 million fund which the firm said would provide early-stage capital for Africa’s most innovative founders. With the new fund, the firm intends to continue investing in the continent’s pre-seed and seed stage companies.
Since its founding, the firm has invested in 18 startups across Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, and South Africa. These startups include the aforementioned TeamApt, Herconomy, Akiba Digital, Clane, Awabike, AIfluence, Intelligra, and Ndovu.
Across the world, VC activity has declined as startup valuations take a hit and some shut down. Buy now, pay later behemoth Klarna had previously raised $639 million in a round valued at $46 billion. However, its most recent fundraising saw its valuation drop significantly to $7 billion following an $800 million raise.
Interestingly, African startups appear to be bucking the trend as they continue raising at record-breaking rates.
Data from Africa: The Big Deal shows that Africa is the only region that has continued growing year on year.
In Q2 2022, startups on the continent raised 2.25x the amount raised in Q2 2021. However, most of the capital comes from outside the continent, and investors are likely to favour less aggressive valuations. Oui Capital hopes to take advantage of that.
“We’re excited to be returning to market at an opportune time, as valuations moderate across the board and the quality of founder talent is at an all-time high. We believe this will make for a strong 2022 vintage and can’t wait to get started deploying Fund II,” Oyinsan said in a statement shared with Techpoint Africa.