First Circle Capital, a pan-African venture firm backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has launched the First Circle Capital Africa FinTech fund, a $30 million early-stage investment vehicle aimed at accelerating the growth of high-potential financial technology startups across the continent. This marks a significant step toward closing one of Africa’s most persistent innovation gaps: access to pre-seed and seed capital in the critical formative years of startup development.
Despite being one of the most profitable banking regions globally, Africa’s financial ecosystem has long struggled with underinvestment at the earliest stages. While late-stage rounds attract headlines, many promising FinTechs fail before reaching Series A due to a lack of structured support, mentorship, and patient capital. The First Circle Capital Africa FinTech fund is designed to bridge that gap—providing not just funding, but hands-on commercial and operational guidance to help startups gain traction, scale responsibly, and attract follow-on institutional investment.
Africa’s FinTech sector is poised for explosive growth. A 2023 report by BCG and QED Investors projects that revenues will grow 13-fold by 2030—the fastest expansion rate in the world. Driven by rising smartphone penetration, expanding digital payments, and underserved consumer and SME markets, the continent has become a hotbed for innovation. Yet without early-stage fuel, many breakthrough ideas risk stalling before they reach their potential.
First Circle Capital is taking a focused, thesis-driven approach, targeting scalable FinTech models with cross-border potential. To date, the fund has made 15 investments across eight African markets—including Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Morocco, and Egypt—with nearly half of its portfolio companies operating in multiple countries. Notably, 30% of these ventures are led or co-founded by women—a strong signal of commitment to inclusive entrepreneurship in a sector where female founders remain underrepresented.
The fund plans to expand its portfolio to 24 companies, reserving follow-on capital for its highest-conviction bets, ensuring sustained support through pivotal growth phases.
Backed by deep sector expertise, First Circle’s leadership team brings decades of experience in mobile money, digital banking, and emerging markets investing. Selma Ribica, a former M-Pesa executive and angel investor behind European fintechs like Qonto and Expensya, co-leads the fund. She is joined by Agnes Aistleitner Kisuule, an entrepreneur with extensive experience building businesses in Uganda and across East Africa. The team also draws on operational and investment experience from Europe, Southeast Asia, and beyond—offering global insights with local execution.
Institutional confidence in the fund’s strategy was solidified in 2025 when the IFC committed $6 million, including $2 million from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). This backing underscores the fund’s dual mission: to generate strong financial returns while advancing gender-inclusive growth and strengthening Africa’s pipeline of investable FinTechs.
With offices in Kampala and Casablanca, First Circle Capital is uniquely positioned to identify and nurture talent across Anglophone, Francophone, and East African markets. Its value-add model goes beyond capital—offering portfolio companies support in product-market fit, regulatory navigation, go-to-market strategy, and investor readiness.
As Africa’s digital economy accelerates, the role of early-stage investors like First Circle becomes increasingly vital. By stepping in when risk is highest and support is scarcest, the First Circle Capital Africa FinTech fund is not just funding startups—it’s shaping the next generation of financial infrastructure on the continent.
And in doing so, it’s proving that the future of African finance won’t be built in boardrooms alone—but in incubators, coding labs, and founder-led teams getting their first real shot.
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