Madica Expands African Footprint, Adds Five Startups to Diverse Portfolio

Madica has added five more African startups to its portfolio, with Egypt’s Delta Oil and Bekia among the names getting the nod. The pre-seed investor said each startup will receive up to USD 200,000, alongside an 18-month support programme designed to do more than just write a cheque.

The new investments stretch across four markets, covering Egypt, Algeria, Cameroon and Nigeria. It is Madica’s first move into Algeria and Cameroon, which feels quite telling. Early-stage capital in Africa still tends to cluster around a handful of better-known ecosystems, so this latest batch shows a clear push towards founders in places that often get less attention. For readers at Arageek who follow how startup capital moves around the region and beyond, that bit is spot on.

Madica, launched in 2022, is a sector-agnostic structured investment programme for African pre-seed startups and is affiliated with Flourish Ventures. Its model mixes capital with company-building support, which, frankly, is often where things get interesting. Money helps, sure, but the guidance, exposure and investor introductions can save founders a lot of faff later on.

The two Egyptian startups in the cohort are working on very different problems. Delta Oil, co-founded by Serag Moussa, is building infrastructure to connect fragmented used cooking oil collection networks with international buyers. The idea is to turn that waste stream into feedstock for renewable fuels, which is a very specific play and, I reckon, one with real export potential if execution goes well.

Bekia, founded by Alaa Afifi, is also tackling waste, but from another angle. Its digital platform links households and businesses that collect recyclable waste with industrial buyers, while also paying suppliers for the materials they gather. In Egypt, where informal recycling networks have long done heavy lifting behind the scenes, digitising that chain could make the model more efficient and more rewarding for people already in it.

Elsewhere, Algeria’s Talenteo, co-founded by Louai Djaffer, is developing an HR management platform for medium-sized and mid-market firms across Francophone Africa. Djaffer said founders in markets like Algeria often have to work twice as hard to access capital and networks, adding that Madica backed the company’s ambition rather than judging it by geography. He said the support would help Talenteo speed up growth and deliver modern HR technology to businesses across the region.

Cameroon-based Paysika, co-founded by Roger Nengwe and Stezen Bisselou, is building a digital neobank with virtual and physical payment cards aimed at consumers and SMEs in Central Africa. The platform focuses on making international transactions easier and widening access to financial services. Nengwe said the startup is working on infrastructure that makes banking services more accessible, practical and inclusive, and that Madica’s backing puts it in a stronger position to scale its impact.

Then there is Nigeria’s ChipMango, co-founded by Ola Fadiran and Jovan Andjelich, which is focused on the semiconductor space. Its work spans chip design services, engineering education and localised Edge AI products. Believe it or not, this is the kind of company that can slip under the radar in broad startup coverage, yet semiconductors remain one of the more strategic pieces in any modern tech stack.

All five startups will join Madica’s 18-month programme, which includes mentorship, executive coaching, founder immersion trips and access to a global investor network. The firm’s eligibility criteria remain fairly clear-cut: startups need to have an MVP, some paying customers, full-time founders, little or no institutional funding, and an African headquarters.

I’ve seen startup founders across MENA talk again and again about how early backing is not only about cash but about someone taking them seriously at the right moment. That said, support programmes do not always deliver equally, so the real test will be what these founders build from here. On the flip side, Madica’s latest selections do suggest it is not just following the usual map. And in a funding market where attention can be chuffed to bits by the same hubs over and over, that’s worth watching closely, even if the outcome is not guarenteed.

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