Sapna Shah brings a rare operator's eye to African venture investing, having gone from international banking to co-founding a bricks-and-mortar food business in Kenya before joining Novastar, and she writes about how African startups often must build much more of their value chain themselves, why culture and field-team management matter as much as strategy, and how trust and face-to-face selling still drive much of the continent's commerce. She's also drawn to businesses that make climate solutions work for everyday consumers, like BasiGo and KOKO, and to companies such as iProcure that use technology to organize essential but overlooked sectors like rural agricultural supply chains.
About their Fund
Novastar Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in African startups reaching low-income consumers, suppliers, employees, and distributors at large scale, focusing especially on climate adaptation, decarbonization, and natural-resource businesses, and it looks beyond Africa's four biggest markets to places like Uganda, Ghana, and Francophone Africa for less crowded opportunities. The fund has backed companies such as Moniepoint, mPharma, TradeDepot, Turaco, MoKo, and iProcure, operates from bases in London, Nairobi, and Lagos, was named the accredited entity for a Green Climate Fund project spanning Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Egypt, and received a $40 million multifund commitment from Japan's SBI Holdings—its first direct investment in an African venture capital firm.
















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