ImpactAlpha, August 2 — Olu Oyinsan left his job at a Silicon Valley Bank about five years ago to launch Lagos-based Oui to invest in early-stage companies “that get to the root of poverty” in Africa. Since then, Oyinsan and co-founder Francesco Andreoli, have backed nearly 20 companies from their inaugural $5 million fund, including enterprise software startup Duplo, mobility venture AwaBike, and women-focused fintech venture Herconomy.
Oui is looking to raise $30 million for its second fund to write checks up to $750,000 to fintech, mobility, healthcare and education startups in the pre-seed and seed-rounds.
“Expect us to be leading many more deals across the ecosystem and vocalizing firm initiatives,” Oyinsan told TechCrunch, “all things we’ve been doing quietly in the past four years, but [are] now looking to double down on with the new fund.”
Hunting unicorns
TeamApt’s Tosin Eniolorunda invested in Oui’s second fund after receiving an investment from the firm’s first fund. Nigeria-based TeamApt lets anyone with a mobile phone and point-of-sales machine become a local bank branch in their community.
When Oui invested in TeamApt in 2019, the company was valued at $12.5 million; now it’s looking to raise a Series C round that could value the company at more than $1 billion.
Other investors in Oui’s fund include Vibe Capital and Alitheia Capital’s Tokunboh Ishmael.
