Seven years into backing African tech, Enza Capital is narrowing its focus. The venture firm, whose name comes from a Zulu word meaning "to build", "to make", and "to create", has launched a dedicated fund for artificial intelligence and AI-enabled startups across the continent. The move reflects a belief that specialist funds find and support the best companies more effectively as African venture capital matures.
Managing partner Mike Mompi put it plainly on a call with TechCabal: "AI is the most consequential technology shift in a generation, and it needs to be harnessed to create value for a broad set of people. That is why investing in AI in Africa now is an incredible opportunity and even a responsibility." Mompi co-founded Enza in 2019 alongside Sir John Lazar, who previously ran Microsoft-acquired communications software company Metaswitch, and David Cohen, a former Goldman Sachs banker and two-decade partner at hedge fund Farallon Capital. Together, the firm has raised $58 million across two funds and made 75 investments across 47 companies in nine African countries.
The numbers driving the new fund tell a clear story. By Enza's count, AI attracted around 60% of global venture investment in 2025, but just over 5% of that reached Africa. Enza is not betting on African startups building frontier models, the capital required is simply too large. Instead, the firm is backing companies adapting AI to African conditions: voice tools that understand Pidgin and code-switching, smaller models trained on local data, and computing built for patchy connectivity. Enza calls this the constraint advantage, the idea that products designed for Africa's limits can travel far beyond them.
On the investment side, Enza screens hard on cost. Because AI startups pay for every query their product runs, a business built on cheap inference can collapse if that cost doubles. The firm looks for companies with high margins or a clear path to them, and expects open models and cheaper local computing to bring costs down over time. As building a prototype gets cheaper, founders also need a moat that cannot erode: data no one else holds, existing routes to customers, or a product woven into the daily work of the people using it. That last point is worth watching closely as the fund gets to work.
Originally published by TechCabal.