Philosophy | Oui Capital

We are thrilled to announce first close of our new investment vehicle, Mentors Fund II.

With the right mix of demographic tailwinds and improving infrastructure, the startup ecosystem in Africa is coming of age.

Philosophy

We founded the firm in 2019, with the hypothesis that the technology ecosystem in Africa would undergo an economic transformation similar to seen in Southeast Asia. Today that is being validated via venture financing.

Southeast Asia

2014

$1,236

213

2015

$1,882

417

2016

$3,511

360

2017

$5,458

395

Africa

2019

$1,286

110

2020

$1,719

234

2021

$3,098

818

2022

$4,800

790

Source: Oui Capital Research

Underscoring this transformation are four drivers (“PIPL”)

Population

Rapid growth: The continent will be home to 2.5 billion people by 2050, accounting for ~25% globally. 1, 2

Youth: 60%+ of population is under the age of 25. 3

Urbanization: 47% of people live in cities. 4

Talent: 700,000+ professional software developers. 5

Infrastructure

Mobile internet data: Costs of 1GB of data in 2020 cost fell to 5.8% of monthly income, down from 8.8% in 2020. 6

Subsea cable installation: Google and Meta subsea cable projects are poised to scale network capacity up to 20x. 7

Data Centers: Increase in demand has spurred investment, and has seen Amazon and Google establish operations. 8, 9

Policy

Regulatory frameworks: Improvements in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana; notably in fintech. 10

African Free Trade Agreement: Establishes the world’s largest free trade area, promoting increased intra-Africa trade. 11

Pan-African Payment and Settlement System: Cross-border and financial market infrastructure for the continent. 12

Liquidity

Strategic investors: Increase in corporate venture capital activity from both foreign and domestic corporates. 13, 14, 15

Mergers and acquisitions: Growth in both the number of deals and deal values for technology companies. 16, 17

Capital markets: Egypt, Nigerian, and Ivory Coast have proved that they can attract up to $200MM via IPOs. 18, 19, 20

Building a technology company in Africa requires focus, and we reflect that in our investment approach. As a firm, we make a select number of investments driven by both our conviction and our ability to add value.