Madica began with a question: could backing founders beyond venture capital’s familiar sectors, markets and networks uncover strong businesses that other investors were missing?

We set out to test that question through a three-year pilot, combining early-stage investment with hands-on company-building support. The ambition was to help underfunded founders build businesses that could serve meaningful markets, create lasting value and deliver investor returns.

Eighteen investments later, we have a clearer understanding of the opportunity, the work it requires and even stronger conviction to find and support Africa’s outliers in a literal sense.

With a fresh $6 million commitment from Flourish Ventures, we are extending Madica for another three years, with plans to back 25 to 30 more companies. The extension gives us time to follow the progress of the businesses we have already backed and apply what we have learned to the next investments.

In the beginning…

“The original thinking [of Madica],” says Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica, “was to back enough founders in the sectors, markets, and founder profiles that are typically underfunded, and support them to the point where we help create success stories.”

We focused on four areas where access to capital was uneven: sector, geography, gender and founder background. We wanted to understand what became possible when founders outside the usual investment search received capital, experienced mentors and access to networks that could help them build.

That meant examining businesses on their own terms. A founder’s understanding of a market, relationships with customers and ability to execute deserved closer attention than whether their background resembled that of someone investors had backed before.

The pilot was also a test of support. We paired investment with an 18-month programme encompassing mentorship, executive coaching, peer learning and connections to other investors. We wanted to give founders practical help with the decisions that follow a first institutional cheque.

What we have built so far

Our portfolio now includes 18 companies working across sectors from healthcare and financial services to semiconductors and recycling.

Recent investments in Talenteo in Algeria and Paysika in Cameroon took Madica into both markets for the first time. Talenteo builds HR software for businesses across Francophone Africa. Paysika is expanding access to digital financial services in Central Africa. Both illustrate why our search needs to extend beyond the markets that attract the most investor attention.

Other companies have required us to look more closely at how value is created within an industry. In Egypt, Bekia connects households, businesses, collectors and industrial buyers in the recycling economy. Its opportunity draws on an existing market with substantial activity, where better coordination and transaction records can make that activity more valuable.

These investments show what a broader search can uncover. Establishing how that translates into sustained growth, follow-on funding and financial returns takes longer.

Lessons for the next chapter of Madica

1. Each investment does not need to address every gap

Our original approach sought to address underfunding across sector, geography, gender and founder background. All four remain relevant. But expecting every investment to address all four at once can narrow the search in ways that work against the mission.

ChipMango, for example, is building semiconductor capabilities from Nigeria, one of Africa’s more established venture markets. Talenteo brings Madica into Algeria through business software. The reasons these opportunities deserve attention differ.

We are becoming more deliberate about identifying the gaps that matter most in each investment. This gives us greater flexibility to back a strong business where we see both commercial potential and a clear reason it has been underserved.‍

2. Three years can only reveal the scale of the opportunity

Some of our companies are operating in sectors where investor interest has fallen sharply. Their continued operation is an encouraging signal, particularly in a difficult funding environment.

But survival alone cannot tell us whether a business will produce lasting customer value or an attractive return. We need to understand how companies are growing, what sustains them and whether they can secure the capital required for their next stage.

The pilot has made the limits of its original timeframe clearer. Extending Madica allows us to follow those outcomes over a longer period and build a more useful body of evidence.‍

3. Company-building support needs to reflect the company

The portfolio spans businesses with very different customers, operating models and routes to growth. Bekia’s work coordinating a recycling network presents different challenges from Talenteo’s work selling HR software or ChipMango’s work building semiconductor capabilities.

That variety reinforces the importance of support tailored to each company. Our pool of African mentors brings operating experience and knowledge of the markets our founders serve. Alongside coaching and peer learning, those relationships help us offer practical support as founders make decisions about their businesses.

“If we do this well, there’s no reason for others not to copy the blueprint and the playbook. We’ve kept that in mind from day one, because we want others to come into these markets and sectors.”

We want to carry that approach forward, with the company’s priorities shaping the support it receives.‍

4. The funding problem has become broader

We’ve explained that Madica began by asking who was being overlooked when early-stage capital was deployed. In the last 3 years, we have also had to confront a more basic question: whether founders can access that capital at all.

The funding pullback that has happened over the last two years has made it harder for early-stage businesses to finance their progress, including those already operating outside investors’ usual areas of interest. Early-stage capital is itself the hardest hit in many respects.

That makes the continuity of programmes such as Madica more consequential. Simply because the companies that a growing cohort of later-stage and multi-stage investors hope to back need resources and support well before they reach that point.

What the next three years need to establish

We’re taking these lessons and even more to double down and back 25 to 30 more companies while learning from the progress of the existing portfolio. One big way we’re growing is that we will be approaching new investments with greater flexibility across our four areas of focus even as we continue pairing capital with support shaped around each business.

An extension also means we now have more time to understudy each business in the portfolio to learn what the model delivers: which companies reach their next stage, which attract further investment, which struggle, and what their experiences tell us about backing underserved founders.

As Emmanuel puts it: “If we do this well, there’s no reason for others not to copy the blueprint and the playbook. We’ve kept that in mind from day one, because we want others to come into these markets and sectors.”

The next three years should give us a stronger basis for making that open invitation to Africa’s fast-growing ecosystem. More companies backed, a better understanding of what helps them succeed, and evidence that other investors can use to make their own decisions. But the invitation - to co-investors, founders and all our stakeholders is already open.