Investing in the under-explored potential of African technology entrepreneurs

Fast Forward is a venture studio—and early-stage fund—that backs founders of African origin building companies to unlock prosperity through technology.📍🌍 San Francisco / Austin / New York / Lagos

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• AI Lab
• Portfolio
• Team
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Venture Studio

Fast Forward Venture studio works alongside dynamic entrepreneurs advancing ideas we believe will scale to impact 10M+ people and achieve >$10m ARR in 3-5 years, backing up to 10 companies annually—with priority on platform and infrastructure plays—in sectors including (but not limited to) B2B, Fintech, eCommerce, Edtech, Healthcare, Logistics, Deep Tech, SaaS, Future of Work, and Blockchain.Have an idea? Lots of domain expertise/operator experience with no idea? Email us hello(at)fastforward(dot)fund or apply with your idea to https://fastforward.click/apply

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Fast Forward AI Lab

Fast Forward’s AI Lab co-build opportunities where AGI (artificial general intelligence) can unlock value. We do this by working with existing portfolio companies, building new AI-first ventures with ambitious founders, and co-building with large corporate organizations.We would love to chat with founders with unfair advantage, access and experience in specific industries. We’re also keen to talk to engineers who have sharpened expertise in vector embedding, prompt engineering, and interacting with multiple LLMs beyond OpenAI. And then, of course, Fast Forward is happy to engage with investors seeking early access to these exciting opportunities.A couple of foundational thoughts about AI for Africa.
- The best AI companies for Africa will help enterprises unlock exponential value and productivity
- Their founders or visionaries may not be coders but have super high technical aptitude.Reach out to us at hello(at)fastforward(dot)fund.

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Syndicate Fund

Fast Forward Syndicate Fund selectively invests in scalable tech-enabled companies at pre-seed stage. Reach out via hello(at)fastforward(dot)fund and let's talk.What we look for👉🏽 Prosperity Tech.
👉🏽 Founders with at least 1 superpower (10x grit, technical, sales, community, product, unfair advantage),
👉🏽 Clear insights on how to grow, or consider applying to the venture studioOne deal opportunity in your inbox every monthJoin us in unlocking prosperity for Africa. Request info on how to invest in our Studio fund or join our mailing list to receive vetted African startup pre-seed investing opportunities.

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Venture Studio Portfolio

Fund Portfolio*

*includes personal and syndicate investments of partners before fund launch

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Team

We are founders and operators with experience launching and leading startups globally. Our collective experience includes founding, scaling and leading several companies including Jobberman, a leading job site in Africa, acquired in 2016; investing in multiple African and U.S. startups that have achieved exits and scale (Clearbit, Reliance Health); and a 16x portfolio MOIC; and building products for large-cap U.S. and African tech companies, including Facebook, Indeed and e-commerce venture Jumia—the first VC backed startup in Africa to achieve unicorn status and an IPO on a major exchange.Opeyemi Awoyemi - Managing Partner
Lara Awoyemi - Operating Partner
Jake Bright - Venture PartnerThat said, the founders we partner with are our biggest assets and we are only grateful that they chose us.

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Contact Us

Are you ambitious and want to use technology to make a big impact in emerging markets? Do you have just an idea or a MVP with little to no traction? We would love to hear from you.And if you want to run a concept we're already working on, check out our venture studio page for broad themes and reach out for a convo.

Startups, talk to us: https://fastforward.click/applyCorporates and other enquiries: hello@fastforward.fund