Key Takeaways
- • Enza Capital completed a first close of $21M for its third fund, the AI Africa Fund (Enza Capital III LP), representing 35% of its $60M target, with a $80M hard cap.
- • Disclosed AI investment in African startups fell by more than 90% between 2025 and the first half of 2026, from at least $170M across 28 start-ups in 2025 to about $16M in H1 2026, according to Launch Base Africa.
- • AI-labelled deals account for only about one in seven transactions tracked in 2026 so far, totalling around $93M, with Healthleap alone representing 41% of disclosed AI funding.
- • Enza plans initial cheques of $250,000 to $3M from pre-seed through Series B, targeting a final close in 2027, and is betting on AI systems adapted to African conditions rather than frontier models.
- • The fund's ability to reach its $60M-$80M final close will test whether limited partners, including development finance institutions and family offices, will back a specialist AI strategy as early-stage capital contracts.
Summary
Pan-African venture firm Enza Capital has completed a first close of $21M for its third fund, the AI Africa Fund, having raised 35% of its $60M target for Enza Capital III LP, which carries a hard cap of $80M. The Nairobi-, Johannesburg- and Cairo-based firm said on Tuesday that it expects further commitments before the end of 2026, with a final close targeted for 2027 and first investments scheduled for the same year. The fund will write initial cheques of $250,000 to $3M from pre-seed through Series B, reserving capital for follow-ons, and will target financial services, healthcare, enterprise technology, education, agriculture, climate and emerging infrastructure.
The launch comes as AI accounted for roughly 60% of global venture investment in 2025, while African AI startups captured only a fraction of that capital. Data compiled by Launch Base Africa shows that roughly 30 transactions tracked so far in 2026 carry an explicit AI label, totalling around $93M. The median disclosed AI round is about $1.9M, with an average of $4.5M, and concentration is extreme: Healthleap accounts for 41% of disclosed AI funding and the top five deals for 74%. Launch Base Africa's analysis shows disclosed AI investment fell by more than 90% between 2025 and the first half of 2026, with no large US venture firm leading an African AI round so far this year.
Mike Mompi, Enza's co-founder and managing partner, argues that AI lowers the cost of building technology, delivering services and reaching customers in markets long hampered by fragmentation and infrastructure constraints. Enza is not pursuing frontier models, which require capital beyond its reach. Instead, it is backing what it calls a "constraint advantage": voice tools handling Pidgin and code-switching, smaller models trained on local data, and computing suited to patchy connectivity. The firm has backed 11 AI-native companies among its 49 portfolio companies, including Aethex AI, Hakimu AI and Lua AI, the first African AI business to pass through Y Combinator's Fall 2025 batch.
Enza was founded in 2019 by Mompi alongside Sir John Lazar, former Metaswitch chief executive, and David Cohen, a former Farallon Capital partner. It has deployed $58M across its first two funds into 49 companies in 10 African countries. Its first realised exit came in 2025, when Netcare acquired a controlling stake in Quro Medical, a company Enza had backed with a $1.1M seed round in 2021; PitchBook values the transaction at $6.77M.
The funding gap is significant. South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria hold about 97% of disclosed AI funding, and about two-thirds of funded AI companies apply AI within existing sectors rather than building horizontal platforms. Enza is not alone: the Nairobi International Financial Centre is planning a $250M technology and AI fund, Romeo Kumalo and Gil Oved plan a $200M pan-African AI fund, and Magda Wierzycka is preparing a fund for South African AI startups. Few dedicated multi-stage AI funds of Enza's size exist on the continent, and whether it reaches its final close will indicate if limited partners will back a specialist AI strategy while early-stage capital contracts.
The launch comes as AI accounted for roughly 60% of global venture investment in 2025, while African AI startups captured only a fraction of that capital. Data compiled by Launch Base Africa shows that roughly 30 transactions tracked so far in 2026 carry an explicit AI label, totalling around $93M. The median disclosed AI round is about $1.9M, with an average of $4.5M, and concentration is extreme: Healthleap accounts for 41% of disclosed AI funding and the top five deals for 74%. Launch Base Africa's analysis shows disclosed AI investment fell by more than 90% between 2025 and the first half of 2026, with no large US venture firm leading an African AI round so far this year.
Mike Mompi, Enza's co-founder and managing partner, argues that AI lowers the cost of building technology, delivering services and reaching customers in markets long hampered by fragmentation and infrastructure constraints. Enza is not pursuing frontier models, which require capital beyond its reach. Instead, it is backing what it calls a "constraint advantage": voice tools handling Pidgin and code-switching, smaller models trained on local data, and computing suited to patchy connectivity. The firm has backed 11 AI-native companies among its 49 portfolio companies, including Aethex AI, Hakimu AI and Lua AI, the first African AI business to pass through Y Combinator's Fall 2025 batch.
Enza was founded in 2019 by Mompi alongside Sir John Lazar, former Metaswitch chief executive, and David Cohen, a former Farallon Capital partner. It has deployed $58M across its first two funds into 49 companies in 10 African countries. Its first realised exit came in 2025, when Netcare acquired a controlling stake in Quro Medical, a company Enza had backed with a $1.1M seed round in 2021; PitchBook values the transaction at $6.77M.
The funding gap is significant. South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria hold about 97% of disclosed AI funding, and about two-thirds of funded AI companies apply AI within existing sectors rather than building horizontal platforms. Enza is not alone: the Nairobi International Financial Centre is planning a $250M technology and AI fund, Romeo Kumalo and Gil Oved plan a $200M pan-African AI fund, and Magda Wierzycka is preparing a fund for South African AI startups. Few dedicated multi-stage AI funds of Enza's size exist on the continent, and whether it reaches its final close will indicate if limited partners will back a specialist AI strategy while early-stage capital contracts.
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