At Silicon Valley, Nigerian VC firm, Ventures Platform has launched a Corporate Leaders Fund with the US-Nigeria Council.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of an Investment and Technology summit held at Silicon Valley to promote Nigeria’s growing tech ecosystem and finding stronger ways to synergise with the Valley’s tech ecosystem players around capital, mentorship and capacity development.
The Ventures Platform-USNC Corporate Leaders Fund will target post-MVP stage companies, invest up to $250,000 initially and has the potential to follow on in later rounds.
Kola Aina, Founding Partner of Ventures Platform described the partnership as an opportunity to get Nigerian corporations and corporate leaders involved in supporting the inevitable future.
“We’re pleased to partner with such an important organization as the US-Nigeria Council to make this journey possible,” Aina said.
It would be recalled that TechCity earlier this week reported Nigeria’s Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo led a Nigerian delegation of senior policy-makers and young tech ecosystem actors to Silicon Valley and Hollywood.
The new fund will back entrepreneurs with domain expertise building innovative startups to solve enterprise challenges. The fund’s corporate backers are primarily members of the US-Nigeria Council.
Beyond capital, the VC said the fund will provide access to market and distribution, growth support and partnerships, talent development, technology, and expertise from the fund backers and partners.
USNC Executive Director, Eliot Pence, said “We see the partnership with Ventures Platform as an important step towards USNC’s mission of advancing US-Nigerian commercial relations. The fund will further align the interests of corporations with entrepreneurs and investors. Ultimately, our goal with this partnership is to deepen, diversify and develop the commercial activity in the tech ecosystem and accelerate investor outcomes. We’re thrilled to work with Ventures Platform to advance that.”
