Surrayah Ahmed is the face behind Sabou Capital. Image Credits: Sabou Capital
Surrayah Ahmed of Aduna Capital, one of Nigeria’s notable angel investor networks, has launched a new funding between $350,000 and $500,000 in 25 late pre-seed to Series A Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The fund, dubbed Sabou Capital, target SMEs in agriculture and agroprocessing, renewable energy and climate, supply chain, logistics, and mobility sectors, thereby bridging critical funding gaps in Anglophone and Francophone Africa.
Surrayah Ahmed, co-founder of Aduna Capital launched the fund, coining it “Sabou” a french tonal derivative of the word “Sabo”, which means rebirth or renaissance in the Hausa language. According to her, she had to launch Sabou Capital due to a vision dis-alignment with Aduna Capital, which remains active in Northern Nigeria.
“Our team was well aligned on the ‘what’ and the ‘why,’ which many co-founders consider the most crucial, while little focus was given to the ‘how…This was a learning point for me as I discovered that even the scale of impact one wants to make differs from person to person.” Ahmed said.
With the creation of Sabou Capital comes a broader focus on SMEs in secondary cities across Nigeria, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast. Although Nigeria remains a key market, the firm is diversifying risk by investing in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire which are all economies with projected annual growth rates above 6% and currencies pegged to the Euro.
Unlike traditional venture capital firms that set their sights on purely tech-driven enterprise, Sabou focuses on businesses that only use technology as a tool for enhancing operations. By targeting companies like these, Sabou Capital, itself a micro-private equity firm, will have other private equity firms like Aruwa Capital, Afrinvest, and Catalyst Fund to compete with.
Sabou also uses a gender undertone in its approach to investment, as it prioritizes funding for female entrepreneurs. Ahmed explained the rationale behind the approach, saying:
“For every dollar invested in a woman, the return is 2x. Yet women face disproportionate barriers to funding. They often lack the networks and resources to go out and raise capital.” said Ahmed.
She also detailed some of the struggles she experienced to access funding as an SME founder in the Northern Nigeria.
“It wasn’t possible for me at the time to travel to Lagos for fundraising. I ended up raising from a family office in Northern Nigeria, which ultimately led to selling my company before we were ready,” he said.
Apart from providing funding, Sabou will also offer technical assistance to its portfolio startups as a way to ensure strong corporate governance, financial management, and operational systems in place before deploying funding.
Sabou Capital has not yet began formal fundraising but plans to launch a roadshow in July. Having onboarded about 20 startups already, the firm aims to shortlist two to three for its first round of investments.
