The Capital Quest | Egypt’s Endure Capital marks first close for new Africa VC fund

On Sep 8, 2022

Early-stage venture capital firm Endure Capital has marked the first close of its new $50 million fund to invest in startups across Africa.

The fund, Endure 21, is the VC firm’s second early-stage vehicle and will focus primarily on impact-driven startups in Africa. It will also follow a selective approach to investing in growth-stage startups globally.

The limited partners who have invested in the fund include British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor that was formerly known as CDC Group.

The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), Egypt’s social fund for development; and some startup founders of the region also joined as LPs.

Endure Capital, led by serial entrepreneur Tarek Fahim, launched its first fund in 2015. Endure was one of the early institutional investors in Careem, which was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019. The acquisition remains the biggest tech exit the Middle East has seen to date.

Endure’s first fund also invested in regional B2B e-commerce leader MaxAB as well as Breadfast, the grocery delivery startup that has pioneered dark stores in Egypt. Endure’s debut portfolio also includes international startups such as Boom Supersonic, Tribal Credit and Aspect Biosystems.

The first fund has made a 43% internal rate of return and 4.3x multiple on its investments, which puts it in the top quartile of performing funds of its vintage year.

With Endure 21, the firm will follow a sector-agnostic approach and invest in 24 companies. Endure Capital will reserve half the fund for follow-on investments in its top performing companies from its portfolio.

For its second fund, Mohamed Noweir joined Endure Capital as a partner to lead the investment team. Noweir has over 15 years of business and startup experience across IBM, McKinsey & Company, Careem and Rocket Internet.

The new fund has already made several investments including co-leading the Series A round of Brimore, an Egyptian social commerce platform. It also invested in Cassbana, a BNPL alternative credit solution for SMEs; and in Pylon, a smart infrastructure startup providing a subscription-based smart metering as a service (SMaaS) for electricity and water companies in emerging markets.

Although PE-VC funds start deploying capital only after a formal first close, they do warehouse transactions while they are still fundraising.

Endure has also launched the Endure Opportunity Fund that will double down on its previous top investments.