Endure Capital announced that it has completed the first close of its new $50 million fund to invest in early-stage startups in pan-Africa. The fund, Endure 21, is Endure Capital’s second early-stage venture capital fund and will focus its investments primarily on impact-driven early-stage startups in Africa, with 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, The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) – Egypt’s Social Fund for Development; and founders of different leading startups in the region. 

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. 

The new fund has already made several investments including co-leading Series A of Brimore, Egypt’s leading social commerce platform; investing 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.

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

“We are here to serve our founders in the long-term, and want to invest in their startups’ entire lifecycle – our strategy as a firm is to provide patient, long-term support to entrepreneurs,” Tarek Fahim, Founder of Endure Capital, said. 

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