Africa's prosperity-tech venture builder.
Fast Forward is a venture studio—and early-stage fund—that builds and backs companies to unlock prosperity in Africa through technology.📍🌍 San Francisco / Lagos
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? Reach out and let's talk.
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.Please reach out to us at hello(at)fastforward(dot)fund.
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.
Venture Studio Portfolio
| Company | What | Year | Entrepreneurs | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bumpa | Shopify for Africa | 2020 | Kelvin Umechukwu, Tunji Opayele | Base 10, Plug & Play |
| Altschool | Future Proof Skills College starting with coding | 2021 | Adewale Yusuf, Sultan Akintunde | Pledges, Voltron, Zedcrest |
| TalentQL | Connecting tech talent with employers | 2021 | Adewale Yusuf, Sultan Akintunde | Techstars, Zedcrest |
| Dojah | KYC and Identity verification for Africa | 2021 | Tobi Ololade, Ayomide Oso | YC, Heirloom, Swiss Fund |
| Sendchamp | Omnichannel messaging software | 2022 | Goodness Kay, Dami Olotu | DFS |
| RoHealth | Health Benefits Marketplace and API for Africa | 2022 | Olalekan Olude |
Fund Portfolio*
Apata / Authentication infrastructure for Fintech issuers
Bumpa / Mobile OS for Online Sellers in Africa
Bank54 / Flexible Financing for African Fintechs
Casava / Digital Insurance Platform in Nigeria
Convoy (YC) / Open Source Webhooks Proxy
Cova / Track your wealth in one place
Electronic Settlements Limited / Agency Banking
Juni / Financial data platform
Klump / BNPL for Africa
Laskie / Talent platform/marketplace
Learnam / Mobile based learning of digital skills , powered by Airtel and funded by GSMA
Miapelenou / Alibaba + Alipay for French Speaking West Africa
Moni / Banking for mobile money agents / YC
Nguvu Health / Clinical therapy app
Odiggo (YC) / App-based car parts marketplace
Payday (Techstars) / Making payroll to Africa easy
Quabbly / No code business workflow builder
Reliance Health / Digitaly Enabled Health Insurance Company
Rollout / Design and automate any workflow in minutes
Ropay / Spend management + payroll for Africa
Veend / Funds disbursement and collection for lenders
Venco / OS for Estate and Property Management
Verileum / Crypto Virtual Payment Network
Vesti / Mobile bank for immigrants
Yemaachi (YC) / Africa's Cancer research company
*includes personal and syndicate investments of partners before fund launch
Team
We are founders and operators with experience launching and leading startups on the continent. Our collective experience includes founding, scaling and leading several companies including Jobberman, leading job site in Africa, acquired in 2016; investing in multiple African startups that have achieved exits and scale (Electronic Settlements Limited, 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.
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.