Savio Venturesa venture capital firm targeting startups in French-speaking Africa, has initially closed its second fund with €12 million backed by private investors including French and Kenyan family offices.
The venture capital firm intends to close the fund at between 30 and 50 million euros to invest mainly in new companies in French-speaking Africa. It is said to be in talks with other stakeholders, including institutional investors, to achieve the target.
Founded by Benoit Delestre and Samuel TouboulSaviu Ventures has been active in Francophone Africa’s startup ecosystem since 2018, when it began deploying its first €10 million fund.
The venture capital firm invests in early-stage startups and is sector agnostic, but, with the current fund, is interested in fintechs, health technologies and climate technologies, while slowing down electric mobility, e-commerce and logistics electronics. .
“We will follow the same strategy as our first fund, where the majority of our investment will go to startups from the French-speaking region, but we still maintain the opportunity to invest in startups from East, South and North Africa that are interested in expanding. to the French-speaking region. Africa,” Delestre told TechCrunch.
Saviu plans to invest between €500,000 and €3 million in between 15 and 20 post-revenue startups with its second fund. Delestre and Touboul said the venture capital firm targets “sustainable companies” and extends business development support to these companies in addition to financial investment. The second fund has already backed Waspito, a Cameroonian healthcare technology; Rubyx, a Senegalese digital lending SaaS provider; and Workpay, a human resources payroll provider.
“We look for sustainable businesses. We don’t want to target unicorns because we’re not interested in businesses or business models that insist on burning cash. We believe in supporting talented entrepreneurs who create sustainable businesses,” said Touboul.
Saviu’s first fund invested between 250,000 and 500,000 euros in 12 startups, 82% of them from the French-speaking region. His portfolio companies include Anka (Afrikrea), an e-commerce platform; Julaya, an Ivory Coast neobank; Zanifu, a Kenyan digital lender; Lapaire, an eyewear retailer with operations in Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo; and Paps, a Senegalese e-logistics startup.
Saviu is among the first venture capital firms to specifically target the French-speaking region, an ecosystem that continues to attract venture capitalists due to lower competition, a huge market opportunity, and high-quality, better-priced offerings. compared to more mature English-speaking regions.
Outside of the big four (Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa), the French-speaking region remains the next investment destination for venture capitalists. According to the Partech 2022 report, the region accounted for 49% and 38% of the rest of Africa’s deals and financing, respectively, last year. Notably, equity financing in the region remained almost stable last year, after growing 2% to $527 million from 2021, when it recorded a mammoth year-on-year growth of 695%.
“The Francophone African ecosystem is now much more developed than in 2018, when there were fewer founders and no incubators. It is still a long way from what you see in Kenya or South Africa, but it is much better now,” Delestre said.
