Enza Capital, an emerging pan-African venture capital firm, announced the launch of its third fund, Enza Capital III LP, the AI Africa Fund. The fund targets $60 million, with an $80 million hard cap, and has completed its initial close at 35% of target. Enza expects to raise additional commitments before the end of 2026, with its initial investments planned for 2027.

The new fund builds on seven years of investing in African technology companies and an existing portfolio of more than ten AI-first businesses. It will back entrepreneurs developing AI-native and AI-enabled companies that address major economic and social challenges across Africa, as well as African-founded businesses with the potential to compete globally.

The announcement comes amid an extraordinary concentration of global investment in artificial intelligence, with Africa capturing only a fraction of the capital flowing into the sector. According to Crunchbase, global venture investment reached $510 billion in the first half of 2026, with approximately three-quarters directed towards AI companies. Meanwhile, AI-related businesses accounted for approximately 14% of the $1.4 billion raised by African startups over the same period, according to Digital Africa.

Enza believes this imbalance represents a significant investment opportunity, particularly as AI fundamentally changes the economics of building and delivering products and services across African markets.

“Artificial intelligence is changing the economics of solving problems, and nowhere is that opportunity more compelling than in Africa,” said Mike Mompi, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Enza Capital.

“For decades, businesses have struggled to serve large parts of Africa’s population economically. Fragmented markets, limited infrastructure, expensive distribution and shortages of skilled professionals have made many otherwise valuable solutions commercially unviable. AI fundamentally changes that equation. It reduces the cost of building technology, delivering services and reaching customers, opening markets and opportunities that were previously difficult to address. We believe this will create a generation of highly valuable companies that transform African economies.”

Building on an established portfolio of African AI companies

Founded in 2019, Enza Capital has backed 49 technology companies across 10 African countries through its first two funds. Nearly a dozen of its investments are AI-first businesses, with many more incorporating AI into their products and operations.

Among the companies demonstrating the breadth of this opportunity are:

• WideBot, an Egyptian enterprise AI company developing Arabic-language conversational and voice AI for businesses and governments. The company has expanded across North Africa and now the Middle East, serving more than 400 enterprise customers and 14 government clients, improving access to essential services for millions of Arabic-speaking people.
• Guidewheel, founded in Kenya, which applies machine learning and industrial data to improve manufacturing efficiency, reduce downtime and increase productivity. The company now serves manufacturers across the Americas, helping factories use energy and resources more efficiently while improving industrial productivity.
• Aethex AI, which builds voice AI systems designed for African languages, accents and dialects. Its technology enables banks, telecommunications providers and other businesses to automate customer interactions that have historically been difficult or expensive to serve. The company has reported processing more nearly 30,000 calls daily, making services more accessible and affordable across Africa’s linguistically diverse markets.
• Hakimu, an East African legal technology company building AI-powered infrastructure for African legal systems. Trained on over 600,000 unpublished case files, its platform structures fragmented legal information and enables judges, lawyers and researchers to find and analyse relevant case law more efficiently, helping reduce the cost and complexity of legal research and improve access to justice.
• Satlyt, which develops technology to run AI directly on satellites and distributed infrastructure. Its edge-computing approach could give remote regions access to sophisticated compute without data centres or fibre on the ground.
• Talent Nation, a Nigerian AI engineering talent company developing and deploying African technical talent to help businesses adopt AI. Through its Learn2Earn academy, approximately 1,400 fellows are currently in training across nine campuses in six cities, expanding access to high-value technical careers and helping African businesses build their own AI capabilities.

These investments demonstrate Enza’s approach to backing companies developing differentiated technologies, proprietary capabilities and business models suited to complex operating environments.

The firm’s broader investment record also includes its first realized exit, following Netcare’s acquisition of a controlling stake in South African AI healthcare technology company Quro Medical in 2025. Quro enables patients to receive hospital-level care in their own homes through remote monitoring and technology-enabled clinical services, expanding access to quality healthcare while reducing the pressure on hospital capacity and lowering the cost of care. The transaction illustrates the potential for strategic acquisitions to provide liquidity for African technology investors.

Africa’s constraints as a competitive advantage

Enza’s investment thesis is grounded in what the firm calls the Constraint Advantage: the belief that the distinctive challenges of African markets can provide the foundations for durable competitive advantages in AI.

Fragmented data, constrained infrastructure, diverse languages and complex distribution networks have historically increased the cost of building and scaling businesses across the continent. AI is enabling founders with a deep understand these challenges to develop solutions that were previously difficult or uneconomical to deliver. In doing so, they are building proprietary datasets, deeply embedded customer relationships, and differentiated technologies that competitors may struggle to replicate.

Voice-based AI can make financial services accessible in languages and formats that traditional digital platforms have overlooked. Clinical AI can extend the reach of scarce medical professionals. Industrial intelligence can improve productivity without substantial investment in new equipment. AI also allows smaller companies to develop and deploy sophisticated capabilities at a fraction of their historical cost.

As these economics improve, Africa’s large and growing population becomes an increasingly addressable market for services that were previously too expensive to deliver at scale.

“We believe the next generation of great AI companies will be defined not simply by their ability to use artificial intelligence, but by their ability to build lasting competitive advantages around it,” said Sir John Lazar, Co-founder and General Partner of Enza Capital.

“As foundational models become more powerful and accessible, value will increasingly accrue to businesses with proprietary data, deep customer relationships, embedded workflows and differentiated technology. African entrepreneurs have the opportunity to build these advantages in markets that global technology companies have historically struggled to serve.”

A disciplined approach to investing in AI

Despite the opportunity, Enza recognises the risks associated with the rapid expansion of AI investment.

As artificial intelligence becomes widely available, the distinction between companies with genuinely differentiated technology and those simply incorporating existing models into their products will become increasingly important. Businesses dependent on capabilities that can readily be replicated by larger foundational models may struggle to sustain competitive advantages.

The firm also recognises that limited venture funding in Africa does not automatically translate into an abundance of investment-ready AI companies. Building successful businesses requires technical differentiation, strong execution, commercial demand and the ability to navigate challenging operating environments.

Liquidity remains another important consideration. Despite growing acquisition activity, African venture markets have historically offered fewer exit opportunities than more developed technology ecosystems.

Enza’s investment approach therefore emphasizes selectivity, defensible business models, measurable economic value, disciplined unit economics and credible long-term exit opportunities. The firm will prioritize companies that build lasting advantages through proprietary technology and data, distribution, regulatory integration or deeply embedded customer relationships.

An established investment platform for the next generation

Enza Capital was founded by Mike Mompi, Sir John Lazar CBE FREng and David Cohen, combining pan-African venture investment experience with global technology entrepreneurship and institutional investment expertise.

Mompi previously invested through the Global Innovation Fund, helped develop the early-stage investment business at ClearlySo in London, and co-founded the Accra Angel Network. Lazar previously served as CEO and Chairman of Metaswitch Networks, acquired by Microsoft in 2020, and is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chair of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Enza combines locally based investment teams with an Office of the CTO, including two CTOs in Residence, providing technical due diligence, technology strategy and hands-on support to portfolio companies. Its broader ecosystem initiatives include AI Tinkerers communities across African technology hubs and The African Vector, the firm’s publication exploring the development and investment opportunities of artificial intelligence in Africa.

The AI Africa Fund will invest from pre-seed through Series B, with initial investments generally ranging from $250,000 to $3 million. The fund will target AI-native and AI-enabled businesses across financial services, healthcare, enterprise technology, education, agriculture, climate and emerging infrastructure, while reserving capital to support portfolio companies through subsequent stages of growth.

Enza is continuing to engage prospective limited partners as it progresses towards its planned final close in 2027.

“Over the past seven years, we’ve built an investment platform, a portfolio of high-quality companies, and deep relationships with entrepreneurs and technologists across the continent,” said Mompi.

“AI represents a profound opportunity to transform African economies. It can dramatically expand what entrepreneurs are able to build, who businesses can serve, and the scale at which solutions become commercially viable. Our ambition is to back the companies that turn this technological shift into lasting economic value – improving how hundreds of millions of Africans live, work and thrive, while building globally competitive businesses and delivering strong long-term returns.”