FirstCheck Africa

FirstCheck Africa is an early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to investing in technology-driven startups across Africa that have at least one female founder or co-founder. The fund focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage companies, aiming to address the significant gender funding gap in Africa's venture capital ecosystem. FirstCheck Africa provides high-conviction "first checks" to diverse teams building for scale and sustainability, offering not only financial capital but also social and belief capital to empower female high-growth entrepreneurs. While sector-agnostic, the fund seeks mission-driven companies tackling complex problems in deep markets. Pre-seed capital supports startups from a robust idea to a launched or validated product, while seed rounds are for companies with good market traction, typically with a product in the market for 12-18 months. The initiative aims to shorten time to market for founders by providing more significant launch capital, potentially removing the need for friends & family rounds.

Founders can submit a pitch directly through the FirstCheck Africa website.