As Silicon Valley turns its back on Africa, Accion Ventures is heading in the opposite direction. The US-based inclusive finance organisation has closed its second venture capital fund at $61.6 million — nearly double its 2019 debut fund of $33 million. The capital will go exclusively to early-stage African fintech startups, with a particular focus on Kenya and Nigeria.
A Blue-Chip LP Line-Up
The fund brought together development finance institutions and leading private players: Dutch bank FMO, French agency Proparco, the Ford Foundation, Mastercard, and MetLife. The combination of public development actors and private sector giants (payments, insurance) reflects growing institutional confidence in the African fintech ecosystem.
Selected startups can receive up to $1 million in an initial investment. The target: fund dozens of companies offering financial services — credit, mobile payments, parametric insurance — to populations still shut out of the traditional banking system.
Three Successful Exits as Proof of Concept
Accion Ventures enters its second fund with a solid track record: three African exits have already been realised from the first fund — Apollo Agriculture (Kenya, agri-fintech), Lula (South Africa) and Pula (pan-African agricultural insurance). These successes validate the early-stage investment model on the continent.
The first two cheques from the new fund have already been written: PaidHR in Nigeria (payroll management for SMEs) and Flowcart in Kenya (cash-flow optimisation for informal traders).
Why It Matters
Context is everything: after a post-2022 downturn, African startups raised $705 million in Q1 2026 alone. Debt has overtaken equity as the dominant funding vehicle, and investors now demand a path to profitability before expansion. In this reconfigured landscape, a fund like Accion's — patient, sector-focused, rooted in local usage — is precisely what the ecosystem needs. For East Africa, Kenya above all, this is a significant vote of confidence.
Source: Accion / Tech In Africa / Causeartist, September 2026.