Alami Capital’s LaunchPad targets funding gap for African women-led startups

Alami Capital, an investment firm that connects entrepreneurs with capital and delivers projects, has unveiled The LaunchPad, a venture-building platform to support women-owned startups with capital, regulatory guidance, and investor-readiness support. The initiative was showcased at GITEX Nigeria in Lagos on September 3-4, and co-hosted with Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Keystone Bank, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Designed as a structural market intervention, The LaunchPad is Alami Capital’s bid to address the undercapitalisation of women-owned startups in Africa. Female-led African startups raised just $48 million in 2024, amounting to only about 2% of the total $2.2 billion in funding across the continent. The LaunchPad aims to generate a vetted pipeline of investment-ready businesses that can absorb and deploy capital at scale across key growth sectors.

At GITEX Nigeria, The LaunchPad featured a dedicated exhibition zone celebrating women-led innovation and hosted a Capital Readiness Clinic with Alpha Morgan Bank and the SEC. The clinic provided startups with direct feedback on investor engagement and compliance. It also hosted a panel discussion titled “Scaling: Unlocking Growth Across Africa,” moderated by TechCabal’s Kosisochukwu Ugwuede, which convened women leaders from Flutterwave, Zipline, Glovo, NITDA, and Endeavour to share lessons on scaling across African markets.

Eight startups were spotlighted at the showcase: Locoomo (Oghosa Uwagboe Jane), Africa’s first cloud warehousing platform turning everyday shops into micro-warehouses; Herconomy (Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti), a fintech platform for women’s savings, wealth building, and financial education; Famasi Africa (Adeola Ayoola), building an interconnected pharmacy network across emerging markets; Okike Spaces (Amaka Ikpeazu), offering flexible workspaces for creators and SMEs; Startbutton (Kelechi Oti), simplifying cross-border commerce compliance and payments; Yemert (Udokanma Georgewill), an agritech startup providing microinsurance and climate financing for smallholder farmers; BioVana Research (Estelle Dogbo), developing Africa’s first trusted network of certified biobanks; and Climaverb Innovations (Senami Anko), designing sustainability solutions for climate change mitigation.

“These eight startups reflect exactly what The LaunchPad stands for: bold women building scalable solutions for Africa,” Alami Capital said in a statement. “By putting them on a platform like GITEX Nigeria, we’re showing that women-led ventures aren’t waiting on the sidelines; they’re already shaping the future of technology, finance, healthcare, agriculture, and more.”

Alami Capital says The LaunchPad will extend beyond GITEX Nigeria with further pipeline-building and investor-readiness programs across the continent.

Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Meet and learn from Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Get your tickets now: moonshot.techcabal.com