P1 Ventures, a pan-African venture capital firm, has announced the final close of its first institutional fund, securing $50m. This brings the firm’s total assets under management to over $60m and signals a strong commitment to the African tech ecosystem, even as global funding slows. The fund attracted investment from a diverse group, including African conglomerates, family offices, global tech executives, venture capital partners, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).
This announcement follows a year of significant momentum for P1, highlighted by its largest investment to date: a co-investment alongside Accel in Nuitee, a Moroccan AI-powered hotel booking platform, which raised a $48m Series A round late last year. Nuitee, founded in 2017, has rapidly grown into a global infrastructure provider for the travel and hospitality sector, streamlining the complex web of suppliers and distributors through a single API. The company, with operations in Morocco and Spain, works with major players such as Hopper, Expedia, Priceline, Google, and Uber, and is making waves in the $75bn B2B hotel market.
P1 Ventures’ strategy is distinctly contrarian. While many investors focus on established hubs like Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa, and often favor proven business models, P1 is doubling down on its “Made in Africa” thesis. The firm seeks out early-stage companies across the continent, including in less-established markets, believing that the next generation of African founders are building resilient, capital-efficient, and potentially transformative businesses.
“We have strong conviction there will be billions of USD of value created by global companies that have been ‘made in Africa’,” says Mika Hajjar, Managing Partner at P1 Ventures. “From Dakar to Nairobi, Cairo to Cape Town, we’re seeing founders combining local insights with global ambition. These entrepreneurs are not just solving Africa’s problems — they’re creating models that the rest of the world can learn from.”
P1’s investment in Nuitee exemplifies this approach. The company, founded by a Silicon Valley-trained engineer who returned to Morocco, leverages AI to address a global challenge within the hospitality industry. This focus on “Built in Africa for the World” companies, which leverage the continent’s unique advantages and AI’s potential to transcend borders, is a key element of P1’s new fund strategy.
Other portfolio companies, like Egypt’s Gameball, a gamified loyalty platform, and South Africa’s Salus, a software deployment solution, also demonstrate this global ambition. P1 believes that Africa’s mobile-first population, coupled with regulatory advances in areas like fintech and the continent’s need for automation, creates fertile ground for innovation.
Previous bets include Yassir, an Algerian mobility and payments super app, and Chari, a Moroccan e-commerce startup that became the country’s first company to achieve a $100 million valuation while securing a payments service provider (PSP) license. There was also an investment by the firm into Egypt’s StakPak, an AI copilot for non-DevOps engineers, built to address the fact that over 99% of Africa’s engineers are non-DevOps, and global AI tools are difficult to import. The firm believes that Africa’s mobile-first economy and increasing adoption of AI-driven solutions will continue to create investment opportunities.
P1’s investment approach is data-driven. The firm has developed a proprietary database of over 10,000 pan-African companies and uses AI to identify promising ventures early on. This tech-enabled approach allows them to track trends, spot talent, and provide valuable support to their portfolio companies as they scale. To date, P1’s portfolio companies have created over 6,000 jobs across 20 countries and impacted the lives of more than 10 million people.
“From game-changing fintech to pioneering AI applications, we’re uniquely positioned to identify opportunities and support their growth,” says Hisham Halbouny, Managing Partner at P1 Ventures. “Great companies are often built in tough times and today’s founders are more frugal, focused, and realistic about valuations. We believe this may be the greatest vintage ever.”
“A new generation of visionary African founders is emerging, creating opportunities across the continent and beyond. Africa VC is fast becoming an asset class that globally minded investors cannot afford to ignore,” Bernard Dalle, Senior Advisor at P1 Ventures adds.
The firm’s senior advisors include Bernard Dalle, a founding team member of Index Ventures, and Emil Michael, former Chief Business Officer at Uber, further underscoring its ambition and network. As African venture capital faces headwinds, P1’s successful fundraise and strategic focus signal a strong belief in the continent’s long-term potential.