Breaking Down France’s New $76m Africa Startup Fund

Jake Bright Contributor Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa. More posts by this contributor Africa Roundup: African startup investments turn to fintech this winter season Nigeria’s Piggybank.ng raises $1.1M, announces group investment product Weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a $76M African startup fund at VivaTech 2018, TechCrunch paid a visit to the French Development Agency (AFD) — who will administer the new fund — to get more details on how le noveau fonds will work. The $76M (or €65M) will divvy up into three parts, according to AFD Digital Task Team Leader Christine Ha. “There are €10M [$11.7M] for technical assistance to support the African ecosystem… €5M will be available as interest free loans to high potential, pre seed startups…and…€50M [$58M] will be for equity-based investments in series A to C startups,” explained Ha during a meeting in Paris. The technical assistance will distribute in the form of grants to accelerators, hubs, incubators, and coding programs.