Madica welcomes new startups to its investment program, expands North African footprint

Madica, a structured investment program designed for pre-seed stage startups in Africa, has announced its latest round of investments in four tech-enabled startups which include Medikea, Motherbeing, Pixii Motors and ToumAI. Each startup has received an investment of up to $200,000 and will participate in Madica’s comprehensive investment program. This includes 18 months of support through a highly personalised curriculum, hands-on mentorship, and two fully-funded week-long founder immersion trips to key local and global ecosystems, including Cape Town and London. The portfolio companies will also gain access to executive coaching opportunities and access to Madica’s global network of investors for follow-on funding, all designed to spur growth and ensure the long-term viability of the startups.

This new funding marks Madica’s North Africa investment debut and reaffirms its commitment to backing mission-driven founders building solutions in markets often overlooked for VC funding. The latest portfolio features underrepresented founders or startups from underserved regions, spanning AI, FemTech, Mobility, and Healthcare.

Launched in 2022 and affiliated with Flourish Ventures, a global fintech venture capital firm with purpose, Madica is a sector-agnostic investment program designed to address structural gaps in Africa’s startup ecosystem. The program tackles key challenges startups face, such as limited access to capital, a scarcity of investors, and insufficient mentorship. It also provides the structured support necessary for startups to resolve critical issues and foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation across the continent.

The selected startups, chosen from applications across Africa, provide tech-driven solutions in rapidly growing and expanding sectors. They include:

• Medikea (Tanzania), co-founded by Elvis Silayo and Desire Ruhinda, is a healthcare platform combining telemedicine and clinics to deliver affordable, personalised primary and specialty care across Africa.

• Motherbeing (Egypt), founded by Nour Emam and Yousef Elsamaa, empowers Arab women through the provision of convenient, frictionless, and secure wellness services spanning Arabic AI chat assistance, educational content, and diagnostic services tailored to address their unique sexual and reproductive health needs.

• Pixii Motors (Tunisia), founded by Anis Fekih and Wafa Dhifi, delivers eco-friendly electric smart mobility ecosystem for urban travel and last-mile delivery, helping regional and international businesses and individuals save money while preserving the environment. 

• ToumAI (Morrocco), co-founded by Odin Demassieux, Imade Benelallam, and Youcef Rahmani, helps companies adopt a holistic approach to customer experience by unlocking actionable insights and providing voice solutions to enhance interactions, using proprietary AI and LLM-based multilingual voice technologies, specifically designed for African languages.

Commenting on the new portfolio companies, Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica, said, “In our first full year of investments, we made six new investments, bringing our total number of backed startups to 8. What’s particularly exciting is that we set out to build a portfolio with at least 50% gender diversity in their leadership teams. We are currently exceeding that goal in addition to a significant portion of our portfolio having female CEOs. Additionally, these investments span eight different countries and six diverse sectors, which is exactly the kind of portfolio diversity Madica aims to achieve across underrepresented geographies, sectors, and founder profiles.”

Nour Emam, Co-Founder and President of Motherbeing shared, “When Yousef and I started Motherbeing, our goal was clear: to empower women with knowledge and resources for informed reproductive health decisions, free from societal norms. Building this solution has been an incredible journey, and we’re thrilled to have Madica’s support in advancing our mission. We look forward to the program’s invaluable insights, opportunities, and support as we scale and improve health outcomes for women in the region.”

“We are thrilled to have Madica’s support as we strive to become Africa’s first e-scooter exporter,” shared Anis Fekih, CEO of Pixii Motors. “Madica’s investment program, combined with Flourish Ventures’ global expertise in supporting entrepreneurs, provides the operational and strategic backing we need to accelerate our growth and make a global impact.”

The Madica team has also added accomplished entrepreneur, operator, and investor Yoeal Haile as a mentor. Yoeal will bring his deep expertise and local operational insights to support Madica founders in scaling their ventures.

Since its launch, Madica has invested in tech-enabled startups, including Kola Market, GoBeba, NewForm Foods, and Earthbond, and has remained a vocal advocate for gender diversity in African tech. The portfolio companies have participated in two fully-funded, week-long immersion trips to Cape Town, South Africa, and London, United Kingdom. These trips offered startup founders expert-led sessions, networking with potential investors, customers, and other stakeholders, as well as in-depth workshops on investment readiness, organisational culture, and team building. The next founder immersion trip is scheduled for February 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya, to help founders plug into additional investor communities.

In line with its mandate and to further consolidate its pan-African reach, Madica continues to seek opportunities to invest across the continent. To pitch your startup, visit the Madica website. Eligible startups must have a minimum viable product (MVP) with proven traction of a few paying customers, founder(s) engaged full-time, have received little or no institutional funding, and must be headquartered in Africa.