Five35 Ventures, a pan-African venture capital firm specialising in early-stage technology-enabled enterprises founded by or focused on women, has received a significant anchor investment from the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund. The fund is managed by the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) Mauritius Foundation, an organisation recognised for advancing sustainable economic development across emerging markets.
This investment underscores a growing commitment among African and global institutions to gender-lens investing, which seeks to address the systemic barriers that continue to limit access to finance for women entrepreneurs. Across the continent, female-led enterprises remain underfunded despite their demonstrated ability to foster innovation, employment, and inclusive economic growth.
Five35 Ventures currently manages a diverse portfolio of sixteen companies spanning sectors such as financial technology, agriculture, health, logistics, and climate innovation. According to data released by the firm, its investments have generated over 1,400 jobs across Africa and attracted more than US$75 million in follow-on funding. The firm’s model extends beyond capital provision by strengthening governance structures, improving market access, and supporting operational scalability for portfolio companies.
Hema Vallabh, founding partner at Five35 Ventures, has reiterated the firm’s emphasis on integrity, transparency, and measurable outcomes. She noted that Five35’s strategy prioritises entrepreneurs who have demonstrated early traction while upholding strong governance standards. This disciplined approach has enhanced investor confidence in an early-stage investment landscape that is often characterised by volatility and limited institutional participation.
Dr Dorothy Nyambi, president and chief executive officer of MEDA, affirmed that the partnership reflects shared principles of impact-driven and commercially viable investment. She highlighted Five35’s contribution to reshaping perceptions of African women entrepreneurs by supporting ventures that yield tangible outcomes, including business expansion, access to follow-on capital, and sustainable employment creation.
The new funding will enable Five35 Ventures to expand its activities across East, West, and Southern Africa, with a focus on deepening its presence in underserved markets. The firm intends to strengthen its collaboration with accelerators, ecosystem builders, and policymakers to foster inclusive and resilient innovation ecosystems. By concentrating on early-stage ventures, where traditional finance is often inaccessible, Five35 aims to address structural inequities that limit participation in Africa’s technology and innovation economy.
Across the African continent, venture capital flows have increasingly begun to recognise the value of diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship. Historically, startups led by women have received less than 5 percent of total venture funding in Africa, according to data from Partech Africa. Yet emerging evidence indicates that female-founded firms are more likely to reinvest in community development and job creation, amplifying the broader socio-economic impact of their enterprises.
The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund’s support for Five35 Ventures represents a broader shift toward a more inclusive and accountable model of investment, one that aligns social impact with commercial success. By adopting a gender-conscious yet performance-oriented lens, the fund aims to catalyse systemic transformation across Africa’s entrepreneurial landscape.
The development reaffirms the growing maturity of Africa’s impact investment ecosystem. It signals that sustainable finance in Africa can be both profitable and transformative when grounded in local realities, cultural context, and the agency of African entrepreneurs themselves. As institutions increasingly move beyond linear narratives of development, ventures like Five35 demonstrate that empowerment and profitability are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary forces in shaping a more equitable future for the continent.
