The Impact of Flat6Labs’ New VC Fund on Startups in the MENA Region’s East and West African Markets

Flat6Labs

Flat6Labs is the MENA region’s leading seed and early-stage venture capital firm, currently running the most renowned startup programs in the region. Annually, Flat6Labs invests in more than 100 innovative and technology-driven startups enabling thousands of passionate entrepreneurs to achieve their daring ambitions and ultimately become their institutional co-founders.

The new fund looks to invest in pre-seed, seed and series A startups throughout the African region. As with its MENA investments, Flat6Labs is focused on early-stage technology and digital health companies, while adding fintech, agricultural technology and edtech to its list of specialities.

The Africa Seed Fund will be split into two distinct, but complementary parts: A $45 million fund that’s part of a trade finance program backed by international development organizations; and a $50 million fund that invests directly in Africa’s early-stage tech ecosystem. Under the terms of both funds, Flat6Labs has committed itself to deploy capital into 40 African startups over the next four years through a combination of equity investments and grants.

Flat6Labs also plans to deploy an additional $10 million into existing portfolio companies in addition to direct capital deployed from the core investment fund. This follows similar approaches taken at other accelerator programs such as Y Combinator: while they offer small amounts of initial funding for specific projects or ideas, they also become long-term backers after their initial investments. Given how many locations Flat6Labs already operates across, it’s possible this investment may extend beyond just East and West Africa later down the line most likely within North Africa where it exists as well.

By making this move in earnest into one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for startups –Africa — Flat6Labs is setting out on a new chapter for seed investing in tech throughout the continent that stands to benefit from its experience working with early-stage businesses over the past 11 years.

Investment Opportunities with Flat6Labs

The fund has made investments in over 100 startups since it was founded in 2011. Its current investment portfolio covers a range of sectors, including fintechs, health tech, logistics, mobility, clean tech, agtech and retail. Flat6Labs follows a sector-agnostic approach when it comes to investing, believing that successful startups can come from any field.

In terms of the size of investments that Flat6Labs makes in early stage companies and startups, its typical initial investment ranges between $150k – $400k with occasional follow-on funding ranging up to $500k for continued support for the startup. In comparison to past funds that it investe$30-$100K into pre-seed companies this shows how far this fund has come and how much they believe in their portfolio companies. It also shows their commitment to driving innovation forward within MENA region as well as partaking fruitful collaborations with different partners such as government agencies and educational institutions.

Flat6Labs has raised a total of $146.9M across 6 funds, their latest being Flat6Labs Africa Seed Fund. This fund was announced on the Mar 14th 2023 and raised a total of $95M. Flat6Labs has made 179 investments. Their most recent investment was on Apr 28, 2023, when Midient raised $125K. Flat6Labs is ranked 419 by crunchbase.
The accelerator has had 4 exits. Flat6Labs’s most notable exits include Harmonica, Seemba, and Nafham.

Flat6Labs has 14 current employee profiles, including CEO Ramez El-Serafy.