Madica Just Dropped $600k on 3 African Startups and Gave First-Time Founders a Fundraising Bible Too

Madica Just Dropped $600k on 3 African Startups and Gave First-Time Founders a Fundraising Bible Too

Quick Reads

• Madica, an Africa-focused pre-seed investment programme, has invested $600,000 across three startups in Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria.
• Each startup receives up to $200,000 plus entry into an 18-month programme covering mentorship, executive coaching, and access to global investor networks.
• The three backed startups Kilimo Fresh, Hakimu, and Biovana work in agritech, legal tech, and health data, respectively.
• The investments are part of Madica’s push to channel early-stage funding beyond Africa’s Big Four markets, which currently absorb up to 85% of all tech funding on the continent.

Madica, a pre-seed investment programme focused on African startups, has added three new companies to its portfolio, committing up to $600,000 in total funding. Each startup pockets up to $200,000, not a life-changing sum by Silicon Valley standards, but meaningful capital at the pre-seed stage in these markets.

The three recipients are a deliberately diverse bunch. Kilimo Fresh (Tanzania), co-founded by Baraka Chijenga and Justice Mangu, connects smallholder farmers to urban markets through a technology-enabled produce supply chain. Think of it as the missing link between a farmer in rural Tanzania and the dinner table in Dar es Salaam. By streamlining that supply chain, the company aims to cut post-harvest food waste and put more money in farmers’ pockets.

What makes Madica’s model different isn’t just the money, it’s the scaffolding that comes with it. Each startup enters an 18-month structured programme that includes mentorship, executive coaching, and two fully funded immersion trips, designed to address the parts of the startup journey that money alone cannot fix.Every founder also gets plugged into Madica’s global investor network.

The programme has, since its 2022 launch, focused on founders who are often excluded from venture funding, whether due to geography, sector, or limited access to investor networks.That’s a deliberate mission, not just marketing copy.

“Each new investment brings us closer to the portfolio we set out to build one that reflects the full breadth and diversity of African entrepreneurship,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica.

Alongside the investments, Madica released the first edition of a fundraising guidebook series *Zero to Funded: A Founder’s Guide to Pre-Seed Fundraising in Africa*, a 75-page guide targeting early-stage founders navigating their first raise without the benefit of strong networks or prior fundraising experience.

Madica also brought on Tauriq Brown, former CEO of TooMuchWiFi and a veteran of Rocket Internet and Mountain Partners, as a mentor to its portfolio adding some serious operational firepower to the programme.

The team and its portfolio companies will also gather in Morocco around GITEX Africa, visibility and connections being just as valuable as capital when you’re early-stage and unknown.