Launched in February 2017, Outlierz Ventures, the Moroccan-based venture capital fund dedicated to African technology startups, announces the first five investments on the African continent. The fund headed by Kenza Lahlou will present its first assessment on March 21 in Casablanca, two years after its launch.
Outlierz Ventures is the first private venture capital fund from French-speaking Africa with a pan-African approach. The fund focuses primarily on the most dynamic African markets in terms of technology and innovation, namely Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco, with the ambition of investing equally in the nuggets of the most mature French-speaking ecosystems of Africa.
Outlierz Ventures is backed by leading US and African private lenders and investors, including Michael Seibel, CEO of the YCombinator (a global benchmark in Silicon Valley behind the success of Airbnb and Dropbox), 500 startups, considered the US Venture Capital the most active in the world, Hicham Oudghiri, successful entrepreneur of the diaspora in Big Data in New York, or Joel Sibrac, former President of the BMCI in Morocco.
The fund has so far made five investments in five different markets in startups with high potential, since the start of its activity in 2017, including WaystoCap (international trade – Morocco), Sokowatch (distribution and logistics – Kenya) and Asoko Insights ( data and market intelligence – West Africa).