Egyptian billionaire’s investment firm has plans for South Africa

A venture capital firm backed by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour and the World Bank’s private investment arm will seek out tech opportunities in emerging African hubs after closing its first $50 million institutional fund.

P1 Ventures LLC plans to deploy roughly 50% of its funds in French-speaking countries in North, West and Central Africa and other emerging hubs, according to Hisham Halbouny and Mikael Hajjar, its co-founders and managing partners.

The remaining capital will be deployed in South Africa—as well as Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya.

Venture capital activity in Africa is concentrated in those so-called big four markets, which collectively accounted for 67% of the continent’s $2.2 billion in equity funding deals in 2024, according to a Partech Partners report.

“We believe that talent is distributed, but capital is not,” Halbouny said.

The company has built an in-house data science tool to source investment opportunities and its database includes more than 10,000 companies across the continent, Hajjar said.

It has more than $60 million in assets under management and will focus on investing in artificial intelligence, enterprise software and fintech startups.

Last year, P1 Ventures invested in an Accel-led $48 million series A round for Nuitée, an infrastructure provider for the hotel and travel industry that originated in Morocco.

It also backs the super app Yassir, which started in Algeria and offers on-demand services for ride-hailing, banking, food, and grocery delivery, as well as the Ivorian fintech startup Djamo.

Mansour first invested in P1 Ventures during its institutional fundraising round, Halbouny, who was previously a partner at the magnate’s family office, said.

The Egyptian billionaire is the chairman of his family’s diversified conglomerate, which has businesses including McDonald’s Corp. restaurants and General Motors Co. dealerships.

His family office has invested in tech juggernauts like Airbnb Inc and Spotify Technology SA.

In addition to Mansour and the International Finance Corp., P1 Ventures’ investors include pan-African telecommunications, financial services and energy company Axian Group Ltd., Anish Acharya, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Bernard Dalle, a former partner at Index Ventures.