Editor’s note: African-Startups is a sister publication of EU-Startups, bringing trusted coverage of startups, venture capital, and innovation across Africa.
Digital Africa has launched the DA Seed Fund (DASF), a pan-African closed-end vehicle targeting between €30 million and €50 million to back tech-enabled African startups caught between pre-seed capital and institutional rounds.
Announced at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on 12 May 2026, the fund will target around 30 startups across nearly 20 priority countries, making it the first initiative of this scale dedicated to pan-African seed financing beyond traditional hubs.
According to Digital Africa, more than 80% of African venture capital funding remains concentrated in just four major markets on the continent, leaving many entrepreneurial ecosystems without adequate financing despite their considerable potential. “The reality is clear: entrepreneurs are everywhere across Africa. Capital is not,” the firm notes.
DASF is designed to sit precisely in the financing gap that this concentration creates, backing startups that have moved past the pre-seed stage but are not yet de-risked enough for institutional rounds. The fund will make investments of between €300k and €2 million per startup, with a sector-agnostic approach focused on high-impact digital use cases, including artificial intelligence, space, FinTech, HealthTech, ClimateTech, and digital infrastructure.
To understand DASF, we need to first understand Fuzé, Digital Africa’s pre-Seed investment vehicle. When it launched, Fuzé was a first-of-its-kind instrument designed to act like a business angel on a continental scale, with investments ranging from €20,000 to €100k. Since its launch, Fuzé has raised €10 million, backed more than 70 startups across 16 African countries, closing nearly 30 investments per year and mobilising more than €4 of additional capital for every €1 invested.
DASF begins where Fuzé ends. The new fund builds directly on the Fuzé model by identifying high-potential entrepreneurs early and giving them the means to become regional and then continental players.
“With Fuzé, we proved it was possible to identify exceptional entrepreneurs well beyond the traditional major hubs. With the Digital Africa Seed Fund, we now want to give them the means to scale and build Africa’s future technology champions,” said Grégoire de Padirac of Digital Africa.
The fund has attracted significant institutional interest. The European Commission, through its Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA), and the West African Development Bank (BOAD) have confirmed their interest in becoming investors alongside Proparco.
Digital Africa calls DASF as the middle layer of a broader financing architecture with Fuzé at the pre-Seed stage, DASF at the Seed stage, and Proparco and institutional partners joining at Series A and beyond. It is difficult to find another comprehensive financing system to match this scale in Africa.
For the new fund, Digital Africa is targeting tech-enabled African startups at the MVP stage or beyond, with founding teams demonstrating the ability to execute and businesses showing high growth potential and measurable impact. The application process mirrors Fuzé’s model: an online eligibility check, due diligence, a presentation to the investment committee, and disbursement.
Digital Africa, a subsidiary of Proparco (AFD Group), was born out of French President Emmanuel Macron’s desire to rethink the relationship between Africa and its international partners. It was formed to push the co-development approach, and in 2024, it pivoted to fully reposition itself as a dedicated pre-Seed and Seed investment fund.
For DASF, Digital Africa will draw from Fuzé’s existing portfolio and the fund benefits from prior knowledge of founding teams, market dynamics, and early product indicators. African startups have not lacked talent or ambition but the right capital at the right stage and DASF promises to plug that gap with years of expertise behind it.
