Delta40, a venture studio and seed-stage fund, has announced a $20m institutional fundraise to build and scale startups across Africa. While venture studios — which co-found companies by providing internal product, legal, and operational teams — are common in Europe and the US, Delta40 claims this is the continent’s first institutional-grade raise specifically for this integrated model.
The round drew a diverse cap table of 54 investors, including:
- Institutional heavyweights: FMO (the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank), Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), and the Livelihood Impact Fund.
- The “Founders Backing Founders” cohort: 25 individual founders and 14 African investors.
- Philanthropic support: The Rockefeller Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation.
Moving beyond the “Passive” Model
Traditional VC firms often provide capital and a few quarterly board meetings. In contrast, venture studios like Delta40 act as an extension of the founding team. They offer “embedded” expertise in product development, fundraising, and commercial strategy from the idea stage through to Seed and Series A.
Delta40, led by CEO Lyndsay Holley Handler, focuses on three core sectors:
- Energy & Mobility
- Agriculture & Food Systems
- Fintech (with an emphasis on AI integration)
“Over 75% of our investors and team have built ventures in Africa,” Handler said in a statement. This operator-heavy approach is designed to mitigate the high failure rates often seen in early-stage African tech, where access to talent and technical infrastructure can be as scarce as capital.
The Numbers: $20m for “High-Touch” Support
The studio typically writes initial checks between $100k and $500k. However, the real value proposition is the “capital leverage.” Delta40 reports it has already realized a 5.5x capital leverage across its existing portfolio of 16 companies.
The studio’s model aims to solve two specific gaps in the African market:
- The Gender Gap: Less than 2% of venture funding on the continent currently goes to female founders.
- The Localization Gap: Less than 30% of funding goes to local African founders, despite evidence that local expertise often leads to better long-term returns.
| Key Metric | Delta40 Data |
| Total Raised | $20m |
| Portfolio Size | 16 companies |
| Initial Check Size | $100k – $500k |
| Geographic Focus | Nairobi and Lagos |
| Sector Focus | Energy, AgTech, Fintech, AI |
The involvement of DFIs (Development Finance Institutions) like FMO and SEDF suggests a growing institutional appetite for “market creation” — building companies from scratch rather than just bidding on existing deals.
“Delta40’s venture studio model… [pairs] appropriate capital with hands-on support to help founders build resilient businesses,” said Andrew Shaw, Manager at FMO.
By bringing 25 founders onto the cap table, Delta40 is also betting on a “recycling” of expertise and capital. This trend, where successful entrepreneurs reinvest in the next generation, is a hallmark of a maturing tech ecosystem and provides the studio with a deep bench of mentors for its portfolio companies.
What’s Next?
With the $20m close, Delta40 plans to expand its presence in its dual hubs of Nairobi and Lagos. The studio will also look to deepen its AI integration across its portfolio, aiming to help African startups leapfrog legacy technologies in agriculture and finance.