{"id":592021,"date":"2026-04-09T07:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592021\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T07:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:35:08","slug":"madica-expands-portfolio-with-600k-investment-in-three-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592021\/","title":{"rendered":"Madica expands portfolio with $600K investment in three startups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.madica.vc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Madica,<\/a> an Africa-focused pre-seed investment program, has made new investments in three startups, deploying up to $200,000 in each, part of its stated goal of backing founders typically locked out of Africa\u2019s concentrated venture capital flows.<\/p>\n<p>The startups span three countries and three sectors: Kilimo Fresh (Tanzania), co-founded by Baraka Chijenga and Justice Mangu, connects smallholder farmers to urban markets through a technology-enabled produce supply chain; Hakimu (Kenya), co-founded by Rawan Dareer, Ahmed Ahmed, and Ahmed Elbashir, is building a pan-African legal infrastructure using AI; and Biovana (Nigeria), co-founded by Estelle Dogbo and Dr. Jumi Popoola, is a health data harmonisation platform targeting global pharmaceutical and clinical research markets.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the capital, the investments underscore a structural bet Madica is making on startups. Africa\u2019s tech funding remains heavily concentrated in a handful of markets and disproportionately flows to founders with established networks. The Big Four\u2014Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/insights.techcabal.com\/six-things-we-learned-about-african-tech-in-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">got between 80% and 85% of total funding<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Madica\u2019s approach, which pairs funding with an 18-month structured program including mentorship, executive coaching, and two fully funded immersion trips, is designed to address the parts of the startup journey that money alone cannot fix.<\/p>\n<p>Each startup was selected from applications across the continent and will gain access to Madica\u2019s global investor network alongside its curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach new investment brings us closer to the portfolio we set out to build, one that reflects the full breadth and diversity of African entrepreneurship. These three startups join a growing community of founders we\u2019re backing with the resources, relationships, and runway they need to succeed at this early stage,\u201d said Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the investments, Madica released the first edition of a fundraising guidebook series, <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1gaCsRT5AzbRG4m2mfpEPsfarPVoQxnkI\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Zero to Funded: A Founder\u2019s Guide to Pre-Seed Fundraising in Africa<\/a>. The 75-page guide targets early-stage founders navigating their first raise without the benefit of strong networks or prior fundraising experience, covering topics from how to evaluate venture capital trade-offs to how to balance local market dynamics with global investor expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Madica also appointed Tauriq Brown, former CEO of TooMuchWiFi, an internet infrastructure company and a veteran of Rocket Internet and Mountain Partners, as a mentor to its portfolio. He will support founders with practical, execution-focused insights to drive growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madica, an Africa-focused pre-seed investment program, has made new investments in three startups, deploying up to $200,000 in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[45,49,48,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-592021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entrepreneurship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}