Kobalt Music founder Willard Ahdritz has been named as an investor in a new $200 million fund established to back technology start-ups based in Africa.
In addition to Ahdritz, named as being on the fund’s ‘Unicorn Board‘, The Norrsken22 African Tech Growth Fund is backed by what’s described as “an international network of 30 unicorn founders, that will invest in exceptional entrepreneurs building Africa’s new tech giants”.
The fund’s founding parter is Niklas Adalberth’s non-profit Norrsken Foundation, which says it is “focused on social tech entrepreneurship”.
The wider Norrsken22 team is based in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana.
According to Norrsken, these individuals have “decades of experience supporting African tech founders”.
According to TechCrunch, the Norrsken22 Fund has already reached its first close of $110 million. $65 million of that sum has reportedly come from the group of 30 backers.
Joining Willard Ahdritz are investors and founders such as Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, Flutterwave co-founder Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola and Delivery Hero co-founder Niklas Östberg.
According to Norsken22, companies it’s interested in backing include “relevant, disruptive, scalable and tech-enabled business models,” focused on the fintech, medtech, Edtech and market enablement sectors.
TechCrunch reports further that Norsken22 Fund will invest around $80 million in Series A and B start-ups. The rest will be invested in “follow-on rounds from Series C up until exit”, according to TechCrunch.
Norsken22 will also make 20 investments “at an average ticket size of $10 million and may go as high as $16 million”, adds TechCrunch.
The firm’s Advisory board includes senior business executives from across Africa including Nonkululeko Nyembezi, who is CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and Phuthuma Nhleko the new Chair of the JSE.
As reported by TechCrunch, VC funding in wider Africa surpassed $4 billion in 2021 – an all-time high.Music Business Worldwide
