🚀 Unveiling our 'Data for Founders' initiative
Supporting 💯 start-ups in Africa with 🆓 access to the data they need on their fundraising journey
We are very excited to be launching our ‘DATA FOR FOUNDERS’ initiative today, in partnership with FMO Ventures.
Our objective is simple: to ensure that our data and expertise actively contribute to helping start-ups on the continent raise funding to finance their growth. And to do it at scale, by targeting 100 start-ups.
As part of the programme, selected ventures will
Gain free access to our comprehensive deals database for a total of two years (worth just under $500). Updated every month, the data already includes 4,200+ deals worth $20b+ and captures all transactions over $100k, from equity to debt, grants, and exits.
Learn how to design and implement a data-driven fundraising strategy. Through a series of quarterly webinars, the team will guide you in leveraging the database to generate critical market insights, benchmark competitors, and prioritise investor outreach.
Gain visibility with investors, clients and potential partners as we promote the full list of 100 participants, and share testimonials of the most successful fundraisers throughout the programme.
Who is DATA FOR FOUNDERS designed for? Our target audience is early-stage start-ups headquartered and operating in Africa who have already raised some initial funding - typically less than $1m -, and who plan to raise a new round in the next 24 months.
Our main selection criteria will relate to fundraising. However, we also aim to build a cohort where ventures based outside of the Big Four, with a female co-founder or a female CEO are better represented than in the current funding landscape*.
How to apply? It’s easy: All you need to do is to fill in our short questionnaire**. So don’t wait, and
The application deadline is Friday, 20 March 23.59 SAST.
We are very much looking forward to this initiative, and hope we can also count on you all to share it with your networks.
Thanks, and Good luck to all applicants!
Max & Maxime, from Africa: The Big Deal
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(*) For reference, start-ups based outside of the Big Four raised 18% of the total funding on the continent in 2025; those with at least one female co-founder 9%; and those with a female CEO 2.2%.
(**) As we value your time, we have designed the questionnaire to take a maximum of 15 minutes to complete. It comprises only 15 questions, the vast majority of which are either close-ended or single-word-answer. The two open-ended questions are a start-up pitch (maximum 20 words) and a request to share more details about your next funding round (maximum 200 words).
This is a brilliant use of data infrastructure to solve a real market gap. The emphasis on data-driven fundraising makes so much sense when founders often spend months chasing the wrong investors. I've seen early-stage teams waste entire quarters pitching without understanding benchmarks or realistic comparables. Free databse access paired with quartely strategy sessions could compress that learning curve way faster than trial-and-error.