Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures

Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) is a pan-African venture capital firm investing in tech-enabled, growth-stage companies across the continent. It was formed in 2021 as a joint venture between Kepple Africa Ventures, a Japanese VC active in African startups, and Verod Holdings, an African growth-capital private equity firm. The firm is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with an office in Nairobi, Kenya. VKAV closed its inaugural fund at $60M in April 2024, with plans to back up to roughly 21 growth-stage companies. Its limited partners include SBI Holdings, Toyota Tsusho, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, JICA, the Japan ICT Fund and SCM Capital. The fund typically invests $1M to $3M per company with follow-on capacity, focusing on post-revenue, scalable startups at Series A and Series B, and it is willing to lead. By fund close it had deployed about $17.5M across 12 companies. Its investment thesis centers on three areas, Inefficiency Solvers, Homegrown Innovation and Infrastructure, spanning fintech, mobility, e-commerce, proptech, deep tech, insurtech, energy and healthcare. The firm offers operational support via Verod and exit and partnership opportunities in Japan via its LPs. Partners include Satoshi Shinada, Ryosuke Yamawaki and Ory Okolloh. Portfolio companies include Shuttlers, Ceviant and Navettes in Nigeria, NowPay, Nawy and Chefaa in Egypt, KOKO Networks and mTek-Services in Kenya, Chari in Morocco, Cloudline in South Africa, and Moove Africa and Julaya across multiple markets. By uniting Japanese and African investors, VKAV backs growth-stage African founders and bridges them to Japanese partners.