Investable.Africa launches platform to connect African startups with investors

African startup funding platform Investable.Africa has launched in open beta, giving founders access to a database of more than 4,000 investing firms and investors free access to deal flow from all 54 African countries.

Investable.Africa grew out of a WhatsApp group founder Craig McLeod – who also runs online store builder BoxCommerce – has run for the past decade as both a venture capitalist and a founder. The group brings African founders and VCs together with three aims – increasing funding into Africa, eliminating bad term sheets, and helping founders build the networks they need.

“For 10 years I’ve watched great African founders struggle to reach the right investors, and sign terms they didn’t need to accept,” said McLeod. “The group showed what happens when founders and investors talk openly. Investable.Africa takes that to every founder on the continent, not just the ones who already have the right phone numbers.”

The platform allows founders to build a profile covering their problem, solution, traction, team and current round, with every profile checked by the Investable.Africa team before going live. Founders can upload a pitch deck, which only approved investors can open, and a data room, with founders deciding who sees which folders.

Founders can search the investor database by stage, cheque size, sector, lead or follow, ownership target, founder focus and location, with each firm’s partners and contact routes listed. The database is built from public lists, which are credited openly. Founders can also connect Claude, ChatGPT or another AI assistant to the database to shortlist firms that fit their round and draft personalised outreach for review.

Founders can see who has viewed their profile, opened their deck or read a file, post updates to investors following them, and receive messages from investors addressed to the whole founding team.

Investors use the platform for free, and are vetted before they can see full profiles and decks. They can filter startups by region, country, sector, stage, round type and raise size, or view only companies currently raising. A deal flow overview brings together matching startups, open access requests, data rooms and updates, while investors can request data rooms with a short note explaining their interest and follow startups to receive founder updates by email.

Investors can also list their own firm in the database, and can buy vouchers to sponsor a founder’s listing for a year, with credit as the sponsor.

Founders can build a profile for free, with a listing costing US$99 a month or US$299 per year. Investable.Africa takes no share of any raise and does not handle investment money.

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