Madica invests $600K in Kilimo Fresh, Hakimu, Biovana pre-seed round

Madica, a San Francisco-based pre-seed investment program focused on African startups, has deployed $600,000 across three startups — Kilimo Fresh in Tanzania, Hakimu in Kenya, and Biovana in Nigeria.

The investment, announced on April 8, brings Madica‘s total portfolio to 14 companies and its cumulative deployment to approximately $2.6 million since its 2022 launch.

Each startup will join Madica’s 18-month program, which includes mentorship, coaching, a curriculum, and two fully funded immersion trips to technology ecosystems within Africa and internationally. The cohort will also gain access to Madica’s global investor network.

The three companies operate in distinct sectors. Kilimo Fresh, co-founded by Baraka Chijenga and Justice Mangu, connects Tanzanian smallholder farmers to urban markets by aggregating, processing, and distributing fresh produce through a technology-enabled supply chain. Hakimu, co-founded by Rawan Dareer, Ahmed Ahmed, and Ahmed Elbashir, is building an AI-powered legal infrastructure intended to scale across Africa. Biovana, founded by Estelle Dogbo and Dr Jumi Popoola, operates a data harmonisation and certification platform that makes African health datasets accessible for pharmaceutical, AI, and clinical research use.

Launched in 2022 and affiliated with Flourish Ventures, Madica is a sector-agnostic program designed to address structural gaps in Africa’s early-stage funding ecosystem, such as limited capital access, a thin investor base, and insufficient mentorship for founders outside established networks. The program selects startups that have an MVP with paying customers, full-time founders, and little or no prior institutional funding.

Pre-seed funding remains one of the most constrained stages for African startups. In Q1 2024 alone, pre-seed funding across the continent totalled $3.6 million, a figure that shows how thin the market is for founders without institutional networks.

Madica noticed that most of Africa’s funding went to fintech, the Big Four markets, and male founders. It stated that it set out to build a portfolio with at least 50% gender diversity in leadership teams and is currently exceeding that goal, with a significant portion of its portfolio having female CEOs. Biovana, co-founded by two women, continues that pattern.

“Each new investment brings us closer to the portfolio we set out to build. One that reflects the full breadth and diversity of African entrepreneurship,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica.

Alongside the investment announcement, Madica released the first edition of its fundraising guidebook series, Zero to Funded: A Founder’s Guide to Pre-Seed Fundraising in Africa. The 75-page guide targets first-time founders navigating their first raise without established networks, covering investor expectations, local market dynamics, common fundraising pitfalls, and practical templates for the fundraising process.

The program has also appointed Tauriq Brown as a mentor. A former CEO of TooMuchWiFi, one of Africa’s internet infrastructure companies, Brown has held roles at Rocket Internet and Mountain Partners. His focus within the program will be on scaling and execution.

Last updated: April 8, 2026