Madica, the pre-seed investment vehicle designed to bridge funding gaps for underrepresented African founders, has announced a $600,000 investment split across three startups. Kenyan legal AI platform Hakimu, Nigerian health-data harmoniser Biovana, and Tanzanian agritech venture Kilimo Fresh have each secured up to $200,000 in capital.

The deal flow signals a continued evolution in Madica’s “New Bets” strategy. While the programme remains sector-agnostic, its recent activity reveals a clear preference for ventures that lean heavily into data infrastructure and artificial intelligence — a shift from the more operationally intensive hardware and logistics models that defined its earlier portfolio.

This latest deployment reinforces a pattern of high-standardisation in Madica’s investment architecture. By pegging each deal at a consistent $200,000, the firm has effectively “productized” its entry into the pre-seed stage.

The capital is not a standalone injection but the entry fee for a structured, 18-month “company-building” programme. This includes tailored mentorship and executive coaching, designed to professionalise early-stage operations before these founders approach larger institutional VCs for Seed or Series A rounds.

Focus on AI and Data Infrastructure

The selection of Hakimu and Biovana highlights a growing “AI-ification” within the Madica portfolio. Madica’s investments were focused on operations and infrastructure — healthcare delivery (Medikea), women’s health platforms (Motherbeing), and electric mobility (Pixii Motors). The portfolio is now heavily weighted toward AI infrastructure. ToumAI (Multilingual AI), Hypeo AI (Martech AI), and Anavid (Retail/Computer Vision AI) suggest that Madica is specifically hunting for startups solving local problems through scalable, high-margin software rather than operational-heavy models. The latest additions are:

• Hakimu (Kenya): Moving beyond simple digitisation, Hakimu is leveraging AI to build pan-African legal infrastructure. The goal is to automate complex legal workflows, a sector that has traditionally been slow to adopt deep-tech solutions on the continent.
• Biovana (Nigeria): Addressing the global “blind spot” in medical research, Biovana is a data harmonisation platform. It focuses on structuring African health datasets, making them “AI-ready” for global pharmaceutical companies and clinical researchers.
• Kilimo Fresh (Tanzania): While rooted in the physical supply chain, Kilimo Fresh utilises a tech-enabled aggregate model to connect smallholder farmers to urban markets. Its inclusion suggests that while Madica is pivoting toward software, it remains open to high-efficiency logistics in underserved markets like Tanzania. 

Following a period of aggressive expansion into North African and Francophone markets — notably Morocco and Tunisia — this latest cohort represents a return to the “Big Four” and their neighbours. By backing founders in Lagos and Nairobi alongside Dar es Salaam, Madica is balancing its portfolio between the high-growth Maghreb region and the established tech hubs of West and East Africa.

“Each new investment brings us closer to the portfolio we set out to build, one that reflects the full breadth and diversity of African entrepreneurship,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica.

To support the execution of these “New Bets,” Madica has added Tauriq Brown — former CEO of South African ISP TooMuchWiFi and a veteran of Rocket Internet — as a mentor. His appointment reflects the firm’s focus on scaling high-growth businesses through practical, execution-heavy insights.

The firm is also attempting to institutionalise its knowledge through the release of Zero to Funded: A Founder’s Guide to Pre-Seed Fundraising in Africa. The 75-page guidebook aims to lower the barrier to entry for founders who lack the “warm intros” or prior experience typically required to navigate the African venture landscape.

The new portfolio companies will join the broader Madica team in Morocco this April for an immersion trip. Running alongside Gitex Africa, the trip is designed to expose these pre-seed founders to a broader network of international investors and ecosystem partners, testing whether Madica’s structured support can indeed turn “underrepresented” founders into venture-ready entrepreneurs.