Madica, the pre-seed investment programme affiliated with Flourish Ventures, has announced fresh investments in five African startups, marking its first entry into Algeria and Cameroon and adding Nigeria’s ChipMango to its growing portfolio.
The Startups And Their Sectors
The five companies receiving funding are Talenteo in Algeria, Paysika in Cameroon, ChipMango in Nigeria, and Delta Oil and Bekia, both in Egypt. Each startup is set to receive up to $200,000, bringing the combined value of the cohort to roughly $1 million.
Talenteo, co-founded by Louai Djaffer, builds HR and payroll software for medium-sized and mid-market businesses across Francophone Africa. Paysika, co-founded by Roger Nengwe and Stezen Bisselou, runs a digital neobank issuing virtual and physical cards to consumers and small businesses in Central Africa.
ChipMango, co-founded by Ola Fadiran and Jovan Andjelich, designs semiconductor chips, runs engineering training programmes, and builds edge AI products, with a significant design hub in Lagos. Delta Oil, founded by Serag Moussa, connects used cooking oil collectors with international buyers for renewable fuel production. Bekia, founded by Alaa Afifi, digitises the collection of recyclable waste from households and businesses.
A Notable Nigerian Recipient
ChipMango’s inclusion comes weeks after the startup closed a separate $1.9 million seed round led by Atlantica Ventures, with Madica among the participants alongside DFS Labs, Kaleo Ventures, Trilinear Technologies, and Malta Ventures. That seed round is meant to fund the expansion of ChipMango’s engineering and product teams as it grows its presence across Africa, Europe, and the United States, including plans for a design centre in Malta.
Madica’s Investment Approach
Founded in 2022, Madica provides more than capital. Startups admitted into its programme join an 18-month structure that includes patient capital, mentorship, executive coaching, fully funded founder immersion trips, and access to a global investor network.
Emmanuel Adegboye, who heads Madica, said the programme’s original thesis remains unchanged: backing founders across sectors, markets, and profiles that are typically underfunded on the continent. He noted that opportunities exist in untapped markets and sectors, and that he hopes more investors will pay attention to them.
Adegboye also pointed to a shift in Madica’s strategy toward co-investing alongside other funds rather than backing startups alone, after recognising that $200,000 on its own often is not enough to carry an African startup through the widening gap between funding rounds.
Expanding Beyond Familiar Markets
The Algeria and Cameroon investments mark Madica’s first deals in either country, part of a deliberate push into markets historically overlooked by venture capital. Adegboye described the expansion as proof that competitive businesses can emerge from markets that have not traditionally attracted early-stage funding, and named Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Uganda as potential next destinations for the programme.
Why This Matters For African Startups
The new investments arrive as pre-seed funding remains difficult to secure across the continent. Data cited alongside the announcement shows pre-seed deals accounted for a small fraction of total venture capital raised in Africa in 2025, with little meaningful improvement so far in 2026.
Against that backdrop, Madica’s push into new sectors, such as semiconductors and the circular economy, alongside new countries, signals an attempt to widen the pool of African founders getting institutional support at the earliest and most fragile stage of company building. For ChipMango and its Nigerian engineering base, Madica’s backing adds another vote of confidence after its recent seed round, reinforcing Lagos’s growing profile as a hub for hardware and semiconductor talent on the continent.
