Launch Africa Ventures and Five35 Ventures are two dynamic organisations that are making a significant contribution to Africa’s early stage investment landscape.

Launch Africa Ventures is a frontier Pan-African fund that invests in early-stage African startups. The firm was founded in 2020 by Zechariah George and Janade Du Plessis to solve the significant funding gap that exists in the Seed to Series A bridge funding investment stage across Africa.

Launch Africa provides critical funding in a startup’s growth journey that enables scale and growth while creating a sustainable ecosystem. The firm invests in B2B and B2B2C early-stage, technology-driven startups with strong management teams solving the most meaningful problems on the African continent. We have a strong belief that through the right investments, African entrepreneurs can make a positive impact in their communities and create sustainable economic growth.

Our sister fund, Five35 Ventures is a seed-stage VC fund investing in Pan-African female-focused tech start-ups. Five35 was launched in May 2022 and is led by GP’s (Hema Vallabh and Janade Du Plessis) with an extensive track record of acceleration and investment across Africa. Five35 is the capital arm of the WomHub ecosystem, making it the most comprehensive ecosystem builder for women in STEM in Africa fulfilling its founders' talent, entrepreneurship, co-working space and investment needs under one banner.

Both organisations fill the critical funding gap faced by startups graduating from accelerator programs who require the time and resources to establish enough market and client traction to sustainably raise sufficient growth capital. Together, Launch Africa and Five35 are working to create an environment where entrepreneurs in Africa can truly thrive.