Madica, the pre-seed investment programme affiliated with Flourish Ventures, announced five new investments of up to $200,000 each, taking its portfolio to 18 companies across 10 African markets. The deals — its first in Algeria and Cameroon — bring its total deployed capital in 2026 to $1.6m following three investments in April.

However, a closer look at the portfolio reveals that none of the startups is a first-time fundraiser. Each has previously secured external capital, in several cases from institutional investors writing significantly larger cheques. The pattern raises questions about whether the programme is genuinely discovering overlooked founders or concentrating capital among an already-vetted cohort as Africa’s earliest-stage funding contracts sharply.

The Five Investments

• Talenteo (Algeria): Co-founded by Louai Djaffer and Tarik Metnani, this France and Algeria-based HR and payroll software provider for Francophone Africa closed a six-figure round in June 2025 from Tunisia-based 216 Capital to expand into Tunisia and develop AI features.
• Paysika (Cameroon): Co-founded by Roger Nengwe and Stezen Bisselou, the digital neobank issuing payment cards in Central Africa secured €300,000 (~$348,412) in pre-seed funding in October 2021 from European and Nigerian angels.
• ChipMango (Nigeria): Co-founded by Ola Fadiran and Jovan Andjelich, the semiconductor design and engineering training startup raised a $1.9m seed round in September 2026 led by Atlantica Ventures, with Madica participating alongside DFS Labs, Kaleo Ventures, Trilinear Technologies, and Malta Ventures.
• Delta Oil (Egypt): Co-founded by Serag Moussa, this social enterprise aggregates used cooking oil for international renewable fuel buyers. It has received venture philanthropy funding from Alfanar since 2021, while Egyptian accelerator Falak Startups exited at a 25.5x return in April 2026.
• Bekia (Egypt): Founded by Alaa Afifi, the digital recycling platform has raised $2.55m across multiple rounds from backers including Orbit Ventures, Catalyst Fund, Oman Technology Fund, and Flat6labs, claiming 75,000 users and over 1,000 tonnes of recycled waste.

The Funding Context 
Madica’s investments arrive amid severe headwinds for early-stage African capital. Total disclosed venture funding fell 17 per cent year-on-year to $1.21bn across 151 deals in H1 2026, according to data from Launch Base Africa. Median deal sizes shrank from $4.65m to $2.65m over the same period, while debt financing surged to 36.7 per cent of total capital — a clear indication that investors are retreating to asset-backed structures rather than taking early equity risks.

The problem is structural. Grégoire de Padirac, CEO of Digital Africa, noted that capital is globally concentrating in established fund managers and serial founders, leaving emerging funds starved of capital — a trend Africa feels acutely due to its reliance on foreign capital and lack of domestic institutional buffers.

While Madica’s expansion into starved markets like Algeria and Cameroon aligns with its mission, its reliance on previously backed startups complicates the story. Madica offers structured 18-month support — including mentorship and executive coaching — beyond capital. Yet, adding a $200,000 cheque to established balance sheets (representing ~10% of ChipMango’s recent seed round and under 8% of Bekia’s total capital raised) shifts its role from discovering raw talent to co-investing in proven teams.

The Bigger Test 

Whether backing familiar founders is itself an implicit verdict on how Madica’s previous backing performed for zero-to-one teams — or simply a response to scarce unbacked deal flow — remains the key question. If its earlier first-time founders struggled to reach institutional follow-on rounds, turning to proven operators looks less like pioneering market-building and more like a retreat to safer ground — a tension Madica will have to navigate as it claims to close Africa’s pre-seed gap.

“At Madica, we’ve always believed that exceptional founders can be found in every corner of Africa, yet access to early-stage capital remains heavily concentrated,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, head of Madica. “By making our first investments in Algeria and Cameroon, we’re continuing to prove that world-class businesses can emerge from markets that have historically been overlooked.”

As an affiliate of Flourish Ventures — the $850m global firm behind Flutterwave — Madica’s ultimate test will be whether future cohorts return to unbacked, zero-to-one founders, proving Africa’s earliest-stage pipeline can truly be rebuilt from the ground up.