Endure Capital makes first close of its $50 million fund to invest in startups across Africa

Oluwajuwonlo Afolabi -

Egypt-based Endure Capital has completed the first close of its new $50 million fund, Endure 21, to invest in early-stage startups across Africa.

  • Endure 21 is Endure Capital's second fund and it is pan-African. The fund will also be strategically and selectively deployed by the investment firm to growth-stage startups globally.
  • Launched in 2015, Endure Capital is an early-stage investment fund headed by entrepreneurs. Its first fund invested in startups such as Careem, a startup acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019, MaxAB, a B2B e-commerce platform, and Breadfast, a grocery delivery startup in Egypt.
  • Its portfolio currently includes Aspect Biosystems, Boom, Brimore, dapi, KarmSolar, Nowpay, Oxygen, thndr, and tribal among others. The new fund will invest in 24 startups using a sector agnostic approach, the investment firm claims.
  • Endure 21 has already invested in Cassbana, a BNPL alternative credit solution for SMEs, Pylon, a smart infrastructure startup providing subscription-based Smart-metering-as-a-Service (SmaaS), and has co-led the Series A funding round of Brimore, a social commerce platform.
  • Endure Capital also launched "Endure Pay it Forward", an initiative to enable its portfolio founders to mentor aspiring founders towards building a robust startup ecosystem, Mohamed Noweir, the leader of Endure 21 investment team claims. The firm also launched Endure Opportunity Fund to double down on its previous top investments.