The Flip29 Feb 2024

The Mastercard Foundation is Investing $150 Million into 20 Gender Lens Funds

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it?

This episode is the fourth of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a different level of the fundraising value chain.

The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund is a $150 million fund-of-funds initiative investing in twenty gender lens funds, with a particular focus on closing the financing and support gap for females.

And in this episode, we're joined by Sam Akyianu, Managing Director of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund.

00:00 - Intro
01:54 - Investing $150m in 20 vehicles
08:06 - Fund evaluation & investment decisions
23:09 - Measuring success
31:25 - Overmentored and underfunded?
35:04 - Getting other LPs onboard
36:43 - A retrospective conversation with Eloho & Justin

In Episode 1 of this series, we spoke to the founders: Bamboo's Yanmo Omorogbe & Uncover's Sneha Mehta: https://theflip.africa/podcast/why-is-only-2-of-funding-going-to-female-founders

In Episode 2 of this series, we spoke to angel investor Yemi Keri, Co-founder of Rising Tide Africa: https://theflip.africa/podcast/this-angel-investor-is-closing-the-gender-funding-gap

In Episode 3 of this series, we were joined by the fund managers: Alitheia Capital's Tokunboh Ishmael & TLcom Capital's Andreata Muforo: https://theflip.africa/podcast/investing-in-women-is-an-economic-imperative

This series is created under the ScaleX project: Co-designing Solutions to close the early stage gender-financing gap in Africa, an initiative of Make-IT in Africa.

Make-IT in Africa promotes entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems across Africa for green and inclusive development. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements this project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Our Links -

🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica

💻 Website - https://theflip.africa

🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica

👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica

📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(102)

What China Taught Me About Global Trade

China's manufacturing scale has no historical precedent. $3.8 trillion in exports in 2025. A $1.2 trillion trade surplus — the largest any country has ever recorded. China is the top import partner fo...

17 Sep 15min

What Vietnam’s Gold Shops Taught Me About Money

Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But its currency, the Dong, devalues 3-5% per year to support its export-oriented growth. When the price of gold rises, Vietnamese people ...

30 Jul 12min

How to Fund a Hospital in a Warzone

In Northwest Syria, a critical network of hospitals faces a unique challenge: how do you pay medical staff and fund healthcare when your country is completely cut off from the global financial system?...

2 Jun 12min

Inside Africa's $16 Billion Waste Economy

Drive through cities in Africa and you’re likely to see a waste problem. In the streets, the sewage, in the waterways…540 million tons of waste goes uncollected every year across sub-Saharan Africa. I...

30 Apr 14min

I Went to Nigeria to Explore How Global Trade Really Works

In Lagos' Computer Village, Nigeria's largest electronics market, everything is imported from China. But how merchants access dollars and pay their suppliers is a challenge.Nigeria imports $20 billion...

1 Apr 15min

Why Getting Paid Costs More in Emerging Markets

If you're a freelancer or a remote worker from the global south, you likely have a harder time getting paid and participating in the global economy. Maybe a global payments company doesn't operate in ...

29 Jan 9min

I Went to Bolivia Where Businesses Survive on Stablecoins

Bolivia is facing a severe economic crisis. The country is literally running out of dollars. Their foreign reserves have collapsed from $15 billion a decade ago to just $50 million today. In June 2024...

2 Des 202511min

Inside Argentina's $300 Billion Parallel Economy

Argentina's decades-long economic crises and hyperinflation has a major impact on how Argentine's participate in the economy.The recent story that's been told about Argentina is that people are adopti...

4 Nov 202516min