Africa Finance Corporation has approved a commitment of up to US$100-million to invest in Africa-focused technology fund managers — a move aimed at increasing the share of local capital in the continent’s venture funding.
The infrastructure-focused development financier said its board had signed off on the commitment, with the bulk of the money still to be deployed. So far, AFC has made anchor commitments to two funds – Lightrock Africa Fund II and Future Africa Fund III – spanning early-stage venture capital through to growth-stage investment.
It did not disclose the size of either commitment, and described them as the first tranche of a broader programme, with further fund investments under evaluation.
The rationale AFC set out is less about the headline figure than about who supplies capital to African tech companies. The corporation said most venture funding on the continent still flows from international sources, leaving local institutional investors underrepresented on fund cap tables.
By backing Africa-focused and, in particular, African-owned fund managers, AFC said it wants to draw more African institutional money – pension funds, insurers and reinsurers among them – into the sector.
The commitment lands amid good growth in Africa’s venture capital scene. AFC said African start-ups raised $3.8-billion in 2025 and that the continent has produced nine unicorns, while citing projections that Africa’s digital economy could add more than $700-billion to GDP by 2050.
Read: At last, South Africa is fixing its biggest VC bottleneck
AFC president and CEO Samaila Zubairu said in a statement that digital infrastructure has become as fundamental to the continent’s development as roads, rail, ports and power. Future Africa founding partner Iyin Aboyeji – previously a co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave – said AFC was its first multilateral development bank backer and he expressed hope that other development finance institutions and pension funds will follow. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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