Enza Capital Launches Dedicated AI Africa Fund – But Won’t Back Frontier Models

Nairobi-based venture firm Enza Capital has launched a dedicated fund for AI startups and AI-enabled businesses across Africa. It has not disclosed the fund’s size.

The AI Africa Fund will back companies building technology suited to African languages, local data, customer needs and infrastructure — not the expensive frontier models that compete head-on with the world’s largest AI developers.

Founded in 2019 by Mike Mompi, Sir John Lazar and David Cohen, Enza has raised $58 million across its first two funds and says it has made 75 investments in 47 companies across nine countries. Mompi told TechCabal the firm has completed 11 AI investments and is working on its 12th.

What Enza looks for

Enza wants founders with deep knowledge of their markets and businesses with advantages rivals can’t easily copy: exclusive datasets, established customer relationships, and software embedded in customers’ daily operations.

Its published thesis argues that as AI makes software cheaper to build, competition rises — making those commercial advantages more important, not less.

Running costs also weigh heavily. AI models create recurring expenses that can erode profitability as usage grows, so Enza is looking for strong margins or a credible route to them.

“Net profit margin and free cash flow matter even more than gross margin,” Mompi said.

Reliability over novelty

Enza points to its investment in AethexAI, which builds voice AI for African and Middle Eastern accents and dialects, as an example of its focus on practical barriers to enterprise adoption — response speed, integration with business systems and accuracy.

For banks, insurers and telecoms operators, the firm notes, an automated customer interaction that fails and has to be handed to a human agent can add cost without solving the problem.

Enza also offers founders technical support through its office of the chief technology officer and its involvement in AI Tinkerers communities in Nairobi, Lagos, Cairo and Johannesburg.

Based on reporting by TechCabal.