THE CHALLENGE. Venture capital investment in Africa has seen a substantial rise in recent years, with a 14 times growth multiple since 2012. In 2018, investment in Africa was at an all-time high, with approximately $725.6 million raised across 458 deals. While this is cause to celebrate, the amount of investment still pales in comparison to other markets. For instance, in the United States alone, startups received $100 billion from investors in 2018. This disparity across markets creates an imbalance of opportunities for businesses, with most African businesses still struggling to compete in the global market. However, as several successful African businesses have demonstrated, the quality of entrepreneurs in Africa is just as valuable as entrepreneurs in other regions. The main challenge is connecting investors to African entrepreneurs and guiding the process so that the exchange can be mutually beneficial and properly drive success. Global technology companies and investors want access to African startups and the technology ecosystem, but have limited understanding of how to enter or forge essential relationships with African businesses.

THE PROCESS. Famodu’s father and his brothers all moved to the US for higher education. Most of them stayed in the US, and some returned home after, including Maya’s own. She witnessed the contrast between those building businesses in the US versus those in Nigeria, and became acutely aware of the challenges West African entrepreneurs had to face. She was inspired by the fact that, although they had 20x the challenges, those back home built equally high growth, profitable businesses. There was something truly special about the African “super” entrepreneur.

Famodu herself spent most of her time living in the US and pursued a career in private equity research and banking. While she was working with major international firms, helping them come to informed decisions about investment opportunities, she repeatedly saw them overlook some of the key sectors and industries in African countries.

To solve these challenges, Famodu launched Ingressive, a market entry and market operations firm that assists global investors and corporations to enter and operate across Sub-Saharan Africa’s key tech ecosystems. They now operate across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Rwanda, providing resources and capital to tech communities across all of these regions, and assisting numerous businesses to make Africa their highest growth region in the world.

With her experience in multiple markets and sectors, Famodu had the skill set required to make Ingressive a success. The company holds market research trips across the continent for investors and the world’s top tech companies to understand the African consumer, invest, support, and grow locally. Her firm also runs organizations’ Africa strategy, and has built programs to develop tech ecosystems including Ingressive Campus Ambassadors, a program that provides funding, technical tools, mentorship and access to developers at every major university in Nigeria, as well as in Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

In addition to being one of the few active seed stage VCs in the region, Ingressive Capital (IC) leverages their global network to assist with growth and scale. They plug startups in to new major clients, new investors, talent, and provide financial support. Through IC’s network of limited partners (investors in their fund) including those who run Y Combinator, Techstars, and WTI and over 10 other top funds and accelerators, they help companies get follow-on funding from abroad.

THE RESULT. Ingressive has worked with over 50 clients who have made 35+ venture investments in the region. Their clients on market entry or market operations have included Y Combinator, USAID, GitHub, 500 Startups, Techstars, Facebook for Developers and many more.

Ingressive Capital, the company’s VC arm, has invested in the likes of Paystack, Tizeti, AwaBike and many more, and operate a model where 80% of the fund investors run later stage funds, accelerators, incubators and banks, providing Ingressive Capital portfolio companies with access to later stage international financing, business development and partnerships.

Famodu’s vision for Ingressive in the next decade is to look back at the GDP growth rates of the major African countries and know that Ingressive had an impact on that growth, especially through the investment into early stage entrepreneurs that grew into billion dollar businesses.