In a venture capital environment where African-sourced funding has been the exception rather than the rule, DPI Venture Capital has pulled off something genuinely unusual: closing a fund worth over $112 million with 93% of its capital coming from within Africa.
The final close of the Nclude Fund, announced on October 26, 2026, marks a landmark moment for African venture capital — not just because of the size, but because of where the money came from. Almost all of it was committed by financial services institutions, the vast majority of them African.
Why This Number Stands Out
To understand the scale of what DPI has done, consider this: the African Private Capital Association (AVCA) recorded just six final closes across all Africa-focused venture funds in 2025, totalling $107 million — an 87% drop compared with 2024. Nclude's single close, at $112 million, exceeds that entire annual figure.
Ashley Lewis, managing partner and head of DPI Venture Capital, told TechCabal that the fund deliberately sought commercial institutional investors rather than the development finance institutions (DFIs) and Western limited partners that typically anchor African VC.
"There is a lot of discussion about how funds can move beyond the DFI-backed model to more commercial funding, and I think Nclude and DPI Venture Capital show that there are working paths to capital from unusual sources," Lewis said.
From Egypt to a Regional Mandate
Nclude's origins trace back to March 2022, when it launched as a fintech-focused fund in Egypt following approval from the Central Bank of Egypt. Banque Misr served as the anchor investor, with National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire as strategic investors. The Egyptian Banks Company, e-Finance, and Mastercard joined the cap table later.
Global Ventures managed the fund initially. That changed in 2025, when a restructuring saw Development Partners International — the private equity firm managing more than $3 billion in assets across Africa — become the fund's adviser. DPI subsequently launched DPI Venture Capital as the dedicated vehicle to run Nclude.
When DPI assumed control, Banque Misr had stated the fund held $105 million in assets under management against an initial $150 million target. The $112 million final close lands below that original ambition, but Lewis noted that DPI never set a rigid hard cap. After taking over, the team spent roughly 12 months carefully selecting commercial institutional investors whose strategic interests aligned with the fund's financial services focus.
Where the Money Goes
Under DPI's stewardship, Nclude's mandate expanded meaningfully. The fund now targets core fintechs alongside embedded finance providers — including real estate platforms that distribute mortgage products. It operates across seed through Series C rounds, with a minimum 10% allocation reserved for seed-stage investments. Up to 30% of capital can be deployed outside Egypt, giving the fund a broader pan-African reach.
Equity cheques range from $500,000 to $10 million. Over the past 18 months, the fund has backed 15 companies, with Lewis expecting the final portfolio to land between 22 and 24 investments.
Notable portfolio companies include Nawy, the Egyptian proptech platform that raised a $52 million Series A, and Paymob, the digital payments infrastructure provider. The portfolio reflects the fund's thesis: back financial services innovation across the region, whether it is pure fintech or embedded finance layered into adjacent sectors.
A Blueprint for African-Led Capital?
The broader significance of this close extends well beyond Egypt. The Africa tech ecosystem has long grappled with its dependence on foreign capital, particularly from DFIs and Western institutional investors. Nclude's architecture — anchored by African banks, built on a commercial model, and closed at a size that beats the continent's entire 2025 VC fundraising total — offers a tangible counter-narrative.
Whether other fund managers can replicate this model remains to be seen. But DPI and Lewis have at least demonstrated that the capital exists on the continent — it just needs the right structure to unlock it.