In 2025, global venture funding showed early signs of stabilisation. Total investment volumes reached approximately $314bn, slightly above 2023 levels.
At first, the figures suggested market recovery. In reality, capital has become more selective, with investors favouring fewer opportunities and areas such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Venture has not disappeared, but has become more disciplined. And in emerging markets, particularly Africa, that change is harder to ignore.
Africa’s funding cycle: from boom to structural reset
Between 2021 and 2022, African startups raised over $4.5bn annually, driven by global liquidity and growing investor interest.
By 2024, funding had dropped to about $2.2bn, with equity closer to $1.5bn. It rebounded to around $4.1bn in 2025, but mostly through larger, later-stage rounds and debt financing. Deal count increased only marginally.
Capital did not return to the market. It concentrated around fewer companies, bigger deals, and more debt-backed funding.
The real constraint: not capital, but liquidity
Venture capital’s main issue today is return, not deployment.
In Africa, only a limited number of exits occur annually, and a growing share of them are structured transactions rather than traditional initial public offerings on the stock market or large acquisitions.
More than 70% of investors now cite weak exit environments as the primary challenge when investing in African venture funds.
The venture model still works at the point of investment, but breaks when liquidity is needed.
When growth stops working
Valuation resets have already changed how investors judge growth-stage companies. More importantly, structurally weak companies have begun to fail.
Gro Intelligence, once valued at ~$850m, collapsed operationally after failing to sustain growth. Copia Global, operating in African commerce and logistics, shut down after being unable to secure follow-on capital.
Neither company was chasing a marginal opportunity. Both operated in markets with real demand. What failed was the financial architecture behind the growth.
The structural problem: isolated bets in interdependent markets
Traditional venture capital assumes companies can scale independently. In emerging markets, however, growth depends on:
- Financial infrastructure;
- Regulatory access;
- Distribution networks; and
- Continuity of capital.
When these layers are misaligned, growth slows regardless of product quality. In portfolios built around standalone companies, that weakness spreads beyond one startup and becomes systemic.
A shift in investment architecture
The market is already adapting, with venture models evolving from capital allocation to ecosystem design.
Across markets in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), companies are working within this architectural change by combining venture investment with infrastructure support, strategic market access, operational guidance, and long-term ecosystem development.
This approach is exemplified by Velex Investments. Part of the Velex Group, this venture investment and venture-building platform creates, invests in, and scales technology companies across emerging markets in the MEA region.
According to Velex Group executive chairman Vadim Mildov, “The future of venture investing in emerging markets will depend less on isolated funding rounds and more on the ability to build interconnected systems capable of scaling sustainably across multiple layers of the economy.”
Instead of backing standalone startups, investors are beginning to:
- Build interconnected companies;
- Integrate infrastructure, distribution, and services; and
- Support execution beyond capital.
In this framework, value is created across connected systems. Infrastructure supports distribution, distribution drives adoption, and adoption creates monetisation.
Recent developments with Zoyk, a Zambia-based fintech in the Velex Investments portfolio, illustrate how this model works in practice.
Its Visa partnership brings together global payment infrastructure and local distribution networks to support interoperable digital payments across Zambia and the Southern African Development Community region, expanding access to mobile money, bank accounts, wallets, agent networks, and global payment systems.
From capital to construction: a new model in practice
Ecosystem-driven venture building responds to current structural challenges by creating companies within a shared framework, aligning them around common infrastructure and market access, and supporting execution from early development through scale.
“In today’s environment, investors are looking beyond user growth metrics alone,” says Nikita Perevezentsev, senior portfolio manager at Velex Investments.
“They are evaluating infrastructure readiness, regulatory adaptability, monetisation efficiency, and the ability of portfolio companies to operate within interconnected ecosystems rather than as isolated entities.”
This venture-building model reduces execution risk by embedding operational and regulatory support into the investment process, rather than leaving founders to solve those constraints after funding is secured.
“Compliance can no longer be treated as a secondary operational layer,” adds Nihad Mammadov, senior ethics and compliance officer at Velex Investments.
“In highly dynamic markets, regulatory infrastructure becomes part of the growth infrastructure itself. Companies that integrate compliance into their operational architecture early are significantly better positioned for sustainable expansion.”
Shared infrastructure and cross-portfolio synergies can improve capital efficiency. It also creates clearer liquidity pathways. In markets like Africa, where exit markets are thin, system-level scaling can make returns less dependent on outside buyers.
Platforms such as Velex Investments use this model by combining capital, venture-building support, and ecosystem development. Backing connected companies across infrastructure, distribution, and applications gives them more ways to create and realise value in complex markets.
Returns are designed, not discovered
Africa remains a strong long-term market for venture capital, but also a demanding one. The last funding cycle showed that capital alone cannot create scale, and growth alone cannot produce returns.
The next phase of venture investing will depend on how companies access infrastructure, distribution, regulation, and follow-on capital. Investors who build around those layers will have a better chance of turning growth into value.
About Velex Investments
Velex Investments’ Venture Studio model supports startups from concept to scale with capital, strategic guidance, operational expertise, and market access.
The platform’s offerings span fintech, payments infrastructure, digital banking, supply chain technology, logistics, mobility, e-commerce enablement, enterprise software, digital identity, AI-driven platforms, and related technologies across the MEA region.
This article was sponsored by Velex Investments.
This article is for informational and promotional purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investments described may involve complex structures and are not suitable for all investors. Capital is at risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and investors may not recover the full amount invested. Any forward-looking statements are based on current views and should not be relied on as guarantees of future performance.
