GreenHouse Capital, a Nigerian venture capital fund managed by Venture Garden Group,  has said it will invest $10m into technology start-ups over the next two years.

The fund prides itself as the largest fintech investment fund in Sub-Saharan Africa.

GreenHouse Capital is a fund with a mission to provide early-stage high-growth African technology start-ups with investment and support infrastructure.  

The goal is centred around the fintech future of banking, education, and renewable energy. 

Bunmi Akinyemiju, Managing Director and CEO of Venture Garden Group, said: “The premise behind our investments is that we think local, but it’s all about scaling globally.”

“The future is about virtual technology and no longer oil and gas, and that is the reason we are investing in tech startups. We have invested over $3m out of the $5m that we planned to invest in the first tranche. In all, we plan to invest a total of $10 million in the next two years,” he added.

The fund’s portfolio include 13 companies including: AppZone, a home-grown banking and payment solutions provider; Rensource, an energy company that’s built as a financial services business; and PlaySpread, an analytics company that helps businesses optimise their advertising spending by monitoring TV, radio and social media.

As a local investor, GreenHouse Capital hopes to be a catalyst to spark proper funding from foreign investors. 

They’ve invested a little over $3 million in their portfolio companies and as of now, three of those companies are being funded by foreign VCs (Flutterwave and SureBids recently got admitted into Y Combinator and 500 Startups respectively, and MaxNG is a TechStars cohort).