We invest pre-seed to Series A in post-revenue startups building how goods, people and money move across Africa.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is creating a single market of 1.5 billion people. Yet trade between African countries is still a small share of the continent’s total, and much of it runs on cash, paper and phone calls. The opportunity is the infrastructure underneath: cross-border payments, logistics and supply-chain software, trade finance, agribusiness platforms, and the identity and compliance layers that let businesses trust counterparties they’ve never met.
Jedar Capital was founded in 2021 by Sherif Nessim, a tech operator turned investor. He started in tech and telecom in 1998, working across the Middle East, Africa and emerging South Asia. In 2005 he joined a mobile value-added services provider as one of its earliest employees, and spent 15 years launching mobile services with more than 45 mobile carriers across the Middle East and Africa.
Jedar Capital started as a syndicate investing across the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan: 18 investments and 2 exits, including Krave Mart’s acquisition by inDrive. Africa Fund I takes that experience, focuses it on one continent and narrows the thesis to the digital transformation of trade across Africa.
How goods move across borders, through warehouses and to the last mile.
How money moves between the businesses that power trade.
How growers get financed, connected and paid.
The payment, identity and compliance rails that let more businesses participate.
At the earliest stage, we underwrite the founder: perseverance, speed and the ability to execute.
Founders who share the bad news as fast as the good. We come in to support your growth — see us as your partners and friends.
Operators who know their niche down to the region. Northern Nigeria and Lagos are different markets, and the best founders know it.
Post-revenue, with healthy user cohorts we can analyse — proof the market wants what you’ve built.
Strong Month-over-month growth: evidence it isn’t just working, it’s accelerating.
Our first call skips the slides. We want to understand who you are, why you’re building this, and what you know about your market that others don’t. We back founders from pre-seed and stay in their corner through Series A.
We invest in post-revenue startups from pre-seed to Series A, the stage where an operator’s help matters most. Our track record spans Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and we follow the wider Global South closely. Africa Fund I is the start, and it invests in African startups.
Post-revenue, pre-seed to Series A? Send us your deck. The first call is a conversation.
