Madica, an Africa-focused early-stage investment firm, has invested $400,000 in two artificial intelligence (AI) companies and partnered with the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) to expand access to early-stage capital across the continent. The dual announcement, made during the ABAN Congress in Lagos, marks a strategic milestone for Africa’s startup ecosystem as institutional capital increasingly flows into AI-driven solutions.
The Portfolio: AI Meets Real-World Business Challenges
The selected companies are Anavid, a Tunisian startup that integrates with existing CCTV systems to detect theft, and Hypeo AI, a Moroccan software as a service (SaaS) startup that automates influencer marketing. Each company will receive $200,000 and join Madica’s rigorous 18-month acceleration program.
Hypeo AI: From Crisis to AI-Powered Solution
Hypeo AI’s origin story reflects the innovation born from adversity. Founded by Meriam Bessa, Oussama Sekkat, and Salah Eddine Mimouni, the startup emerged after Bessa’s digital marketing agency lost a $600,000 annual contract due to a single manual error in influencer campaign management.
The platform now automates every step of influencer marketing—from AI-powered brand-creator matching and pricing recommendations to content validation and payment processing. “Our region has no shortage of talent. What’s been missing is smart infrastructure,” said Bessa, co-founder and CEO of Hypeo AI. “We’re building tools that allow brands and creators to meet faster, match better, and work smarter with the power of AI.”
The startup has already secured backing from Renew Capital and Digital Africa prior to this Madica investment, demonstrating strong market validation for its approach to transforming influencer marketing in Africa and the Middle East.
Anavid: Computer Vision for Retail Intelligence
Anavid, co-founded by Ahmed Chaari and David Nilsson, leverages AI to reduce shoplifting by integrating retail cameras for real-time monitoring. The Tunisia-based company deploys computer vision technology to help retailers tackle losses, optimize inventory management, and enhance in-store customer experiences.
Beyond theft detection, Anavid’s ShopAnalytics platform provides retailers with comprehensive insights including queue analytics, heatmaps, footfall analysis, and behavioral patterns—transforming passive surveillance systems into intelligent business tools. The platform integrates seamlessly with existing CCTV infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly hardware upgrades.
The 18-Month Acceleration Journey
The program combines funding with tailored mentorship, executive coaching, global investor access, and fully-funded immersion trips to accelerate growth. This structured support addresses critical gaps in Africa’s startup ecosystem: limited access to capital, scarcity of experienced mentors, and insufficient connections to global markets.
The immersion trips are particularly strategic, exposing founders to both local African tech hubs and international ecosystems, helping them understand diverse market dynamics and investment landscapes.
Strategic Partnership: Madica Meets ABAN’s 5,000+ Angels
In a move that could reshape African startup funding dynamics, Madica has also partnered with the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), which boasts over 5,000 angel investors across 37 African countries and the diaspora. This partnership will allow ABAN angels to co-invest in companies and jointly participate in fundraising activities, providing access to capital for African startups.
“The future of Africa’s innovation economy depends on how effectively we can mobilize local capital and empower local investors,” said Yemi Keri, President of ABAN. “Our collaboration with Madica helps bridge the gap between angel investors and institutional capital, ensuring that more funding comes from within the continent, and that startups everywhere in Africa can access the right type of support to scale”.
The partnership creates a multiplier effect: Madica’s institutional backing combined with ABAN’s distributed angel network can deploy capital more efficiently while de-risking investments through co-investment structures.
Madica’s Expanding Footprint Across Africa
Launched in 2022, Madica is sector-agnostic and aims to address structural gaps in Africa’s startup ecosystem by backing underrepresented founders, underserved regions, and overlooked sectors. An affiliate of Flourish Ventures, a global fintech-focused venture firm, Madica has deliberately positioned itself to support diversity and inclusion in African tech.
These new investments bring Madica’s tally to ten startups in total, investing $2 million across its portfolio companies. The firm plans to invest $6 million in 30 African startups by 2025, with a clear focus on early-stage companies that combine emerging technologies with real-world applications.
Prior to this round, Madica backed four African startups—Medikea (Tanzania), Motherbeing (Egypt), Pixii Motors (Tunisia), and ToumAI (Morocco)—with $800,000 in pre-seed funding across healthcare, e-mobility, and AI sectors in February 2025. These North African investments mark Madica’s expansion beyond its initial Southern and West African focus.
The AI Investment Thesis: Practical Applications Over Hype
The move highlights Madica’s deeper strategy to connect institutional investors and angel networks to make early capital more accessible to African founders. It also reveals its focus on businesses working with emerging technologies and applying them in already established sectors.
This pragmatic approach—prioritizing AI applications in established industries like retail and marketing over purely speculative tech—reflects lessons learned from global venture cycles. Both Hypeo AI and Anavid are solving immediate, measurable problems with clear revenue models, making them attractive to institutional capital despite the early stage.
“At Madica, we believe and continue to prove that some of the world’s most transformative ideas come from places that are too often ignored,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, Head of Madica. “The founders we’ve just welcomed are visionaries, building solutions with the power to uplift communities and shape industries. We’re proud to stand with them as they take on the next stage of their journey.”
Market Context: Africa’s Growing AI Ecosystem
While Africa’s AI ecosystem remains nascent compared to Silicon Valley or European tech hubs, investment momentum is building. Venture funding on the continent is recovering from recent slowdowns, with early-stage startups securing 9% of total venture funding in 2024.
The continent’s unique challenges—from informal retail sectors to fragmented influencer marketing infrastructure—create opportunities for AI solutions tailored to local contexts rather than imported models.
For Hypeo AI, this means understanding the nuances of African and Middle Eastern influencer dynamics, payment preferences, and brand-creator relationships. For Anavid, it means designing computer vision systems that work with existing, often outdated, CCTV infrastructure rather than requiring expensive replacements.
The Road Ahead: Scaling Beyond Borders
Both startups now face the critical challenge of scaling beyond their home markets. Hypeo AI is targeting the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where influencer marketing spend is growing exponentially alongside social media penetration. Anavid’s retail intelligence platform has applications across Africa’s rapidly modernizing retail sector, from supermarkets to shopping malls.
The Madica program’s emphasis on investor connections could prove decisive. With access to Flourish Ventures’ global network and now ABAN’s 5,000+ angels, both startups have pathways to follow-on funding—critical for capital-intensive AI companies that need resources to refine algorithms, expand datasets, and build sales infrastructure.
Ecosystem Impact: Building Locally, Scaling Globally
The ABAN partnership represents more than capital—it’s about building a self-sustaining African venture ecosystem. By connecting angel investors across 37 countries with vetted, accelerated startups, Madica and ABAN are creating feedback loops where successful exits can fund the next generation of founders.
“We’re not just investing in companies; we’re investing in ecosystems,” noted Adegboye. This long-term vision—prioritizing sustainable, inclusive growth over rapid exits—distinguishes Madica’s approach from traditional venture capital models.
What This Means for African Founders
The investments and partnership send clear signals to African entrepreneurs:
- Emerging tech meets real problems: Pure technology plays are less attractive than applied AI solving measurable business challenges
- Geographic diversity matters: North African startups are gaining traction alongside traditional West and East African tech hubs
- Structured support wins: Accelerator programs that combine capital, mentorship, and network access are becoming table stakes
- Local capital is mobilizing: The ABAN partnership demonstrates growing appetite from African angel investors
For Hypeo AI and Anavid, the journey from $200,000 pre-seed to Series A will test their execution capabilities, market timing, and ability to navigate Africa’s complex, fragmented markets. But with institutional backing, angel network access, and 18 months of intensive support, both startups have fighting chances to become category leaders in their respective domains.
