Collaborating with corporates, public institutions, foundations, development agencies and impact funds, the Seedstars Group was able to accelerate startup ecosystems around the globe.

Through their years of work, they found that there was a lack of funding in these frontier markets. VC capital flow has been growing 40% year-on-year in emerging markets but still represents less than 4% of global volumes, despite accounting for the majority of the world’s population. In 2017, Seedstars developed the Seedstars International Ventures (SIV) fund to address the development challenge of funding for early-stage companies across emerging markets.

Investing for impact and robustness

SIV is often the first international investor on the cap table offering capital, knowledge, and network. Focusing on pre-seed/seed stage companies that are solving key societal challenges such as access to financial services, healthcare, education, or commerce, SIV is able to support the growth of their portfolio companies. As investors, they are able to achieve the highest catalytic impact on the ecosystems and attract more private investment.

To date, SIV I has invested in 81 companies in 32 countries across Asia, Africa, CEE, MENA, and LATAM, and has achieved significant multiplier effect with portfolio companies raising 17.8x in follow-on funding. Around 86% of these investments are made to local founders and developing economies, while 12% has been assigned to less developed countries. Supporting startups in these economies provides outsize benefits by fostering job creation and exponentially impacting people’s lives through economic and social development.

Portfolio companies went on to raise over $220 million

What makes SIV different is their Value Creation Platform that helps companies scale up rapidly. Each company in the portfolio takes part in the Growth Track, a three-month-long program where portfolio companies are equipped with tools and methodologies, as well as given mentorship on how to run a professional growth team. The Value Creation Platform also gives access to a network of over a thousand mentors and peers who can support them in future endeavors.

After the initial investment from Seedstars, portfolio companies have gone on to raise a total of $220 million in additional financing. Some of the recent successes are:

• Dastgyr, a B2B e-commerce marketplace connecting small retailers to suppliers in Pakistan, who recently closed a $37 million Series A.
• Foodics, who acquired portfolio company POS Rocket, an end-to-end POS & Restaurant Management solution, raised $170 million Series C round and signed a strategic partnership with one of Saudi’s largest financial institutions.
• OlaClick, a web-based digital menu solution that helps businesses in Latam receive simplified online orders through WhatsApp, raised $2 million in seed round and achieved a +4000% growth in 2021 compared to the previous year,
• MyRobin, an Indonesian company providing on-demand, pre-screened, flexible workforce to businesses within 24 hours, who have more than 2.6 million workers in their community.

Recently, Seedstars launched its second global emerging market seed stage fund, Seedstars International Ventures Fund II with a first close of $20 million and commitments from notable investors including the IFC, Visa Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Symbiotics Group. The fund intends to invest further into 100 companies across emerging markets in the next three years. Investments will be focused on companies building for the future of finance, commerce, health, work, and education, with follow-on investments up to Series A.

Seedstars is also set to formally debut Seedstars Capital, a fund platform that houses various funds of the company. Seedstars International Ventures and Seedstars Africa Ventures included, register to the newsletter to get the latest updates.

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