Seedstars is an alternative investment platform specialised in emerging markets, founded in Switzerland in 2012 with a network covering over 90 countries. The platform incubates, accelerates and invests in first-time and emerging venture capital funds and their portfolio companies, supporting the world’s most ambitious fund managers and entrepreneurs on the belief that emerging and frontier markets’ demographic growth is generating more high-growth technology companies than ever before.

Africa has been central to Seedstars from the beginning — it was among the earliest global players to systematically scout, train and back African founders through the Seedstars World competition, growth programmes and accelerators, building a pioneering presence in African entrepreneurship ecosystems since 2012. Its investment arm, Seedstars International Ventures, is an industry-agnostic fund investing across 30+ countries in Africa, LATAM, MENA, CEE and Asia, backing ventures solving key societal challenges in financial services, healthcare, education and commerce, with 26 African investments across Funds I and II. Alongside this sits Seedstars Africa Ventures, a dedicated pan-African early-stage fund launched by Maxime Bouan, Tamim El Zein and Bruce Nsereko-Lule with Seedstars and LBO France, which closed a $30 million anchor commitment from EIB Global (backed by the EU’s ACP Trust Fund and Boost Africa programme). The Nairobi- and Paris-based fund writes initial cheques of $250k–$2m with follow-on up to $5m across up to 30 startups, deliberately bridging funding gaps beyond the “big four” markets of Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. Portfolio names include Poa Internet (Kenya), Beacon Power Services (Nigeria), Shamba Pride and Bizao.