Medica, a pre-seed investment program backed by Flourish Ventures, has invested up to $600,000 in three new startups in Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria.
Three companies, Kilimo Fresh, Hakimu and Biovana, will each receive up to $200,000. They also gain access to Medica's 18-month support program, which includes mentorship, executive coaching, and two fully funded immersion trips to the technology ecosystem in Africa and abroad. Additionally, founders get access to Medica's global investor network.
This is the latest batch from a program that has been steadily building the portfolio since its launch in 2022. Medica had previously invested in startups such as GoBBA and NuForm Foods across various sectors and geographies.
what do three startups do
Kilimo Fresh is a Tanzanian agritech startup co-founded by Baraka Chizenga and Justice Mangu. It connects smallholder farmers to urban markets by collecting, processing and distributing fresh produce through a technology-enabled supply chain. The problem it's solving is simple but big: post-harvest food waste. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 30 to 50 percent of food produced never reaches consumers, largely due to fragmented supply chains, poor storage, and weak market linkages. Kilimo Fresh is trying to tighten that chain with technology.
Hakimu is a Kenya-based legaltech startup co-founded by Rawan Derer, Ahmed Ahmed, and Ahmed Elbashir. The company is building a pan-African legal infrastructure powered by AI. Legaltech remains a relatively underdeveloped category in the African startup ecosystem. Most people on the continent still do not have access to affordable legal services, and digital tools that simplify legal processes are scarce. Hakimu wants to change this in a big way.
“We are revolutionizing access to justice across Africa,” said Rawan Derer, co-founder and CEO of Hakimu. “Having a partner that understands the specific challenges and opportunities of expansion in Africa makes a real difference.”
biovana is a Nigerian health data startup co-founded by Estelle Dogbo and Dr. Jumei Popola. It serves as a data reconciliation and certification platform designed to unlock African health datasets for use in global pharmaceutical, AI, and clinical research. Africa generates enormous amounts of health data, but much of it is fragmented, inconsistent or inaccessible to researchers. Biovana wants to clean it up and make it usable globally. Notably, it is led entirely by women, which is rare in African deep tech.
Why does it matter?
Africa has a well-documented pre-seed funding problem. according to Tracked Data by Africa: The Big DealOnly $46.5 million went into pre-seed deals across 281 startups across the continent in 2025. This figure barely increased by 2024, while the broader African venture capital market grew by almost 40 percent. Pre-seed funding was only 1.5 percent of total invested capital, much less than the typical 4 to 6 percent in the United States.
The number of active pre-seed investors is also declining, from 200 in 2022 to 135 in 2025. And about 60 percent of pre-seed money flows still go to just four countries: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.
Medica was designed to push back against this pattern. By investing across different sectors (agritech, legaltech, health data) and geographies (Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria), and prioritizing founders who lack established investor networks, the program is intentionally fishing in waters that most VCs avoid.
“Each new investment brings us closer to the portfolio we want to build, one that reflects the full breadth and diversity of African entrepreneurship,” said Emmanuel Adegboye, head of Medica.
A Fundraising Guide for First-Time Founders
To coincide with the investment, Medica releases first edition of fundraising guidebook series Zero to Funded: A Founder's Guide to Pre-Seed Fundraising in Africa. The 75-page guide is aimed at founders who are raising money for the first time, who often don't have access to accelerators, strong networks, or anyone who's done it before.
It covers the practical ground: common myths that can derail early investor conversations, how to decide if venture capital is even the right path, how to balance local market realities with the expectations of international investors, and templates and checklists founders can use straight away. In an ecosystem where fundraising knowledge is often hoarded in small circles, making such a resource freely available is a worthwhile step forward.
New Guru, Moroccan House
Medica also hired Toric Brown, former CEO of TooMuchWiFi and a venture builder with experience at Rocket Internet and Mountain Partners, as a mentor. He will provide execution-focused guidance to portfolio founders.
The entire Medica team and portfolio are currently gathered in Morocco for an immersion trip running in conjunction with GITEX Africa. The program includes workshops on investment preparation, organizational culture and team building, as well as time to meet investors and ecosystem partners.
looking ahead
Medica continues to accept applications from pre-seed startups headquartered in Africa. The eligibility bar is intentionally inaccessible: a minimum viable product with few paying customers, full-time founders, and little or no prior institutional funding.
For a continent that requires approximately $120 million annually in pre-seed capital to maintain a healthy startup pipeline, every program that writes the initial check and works to support founders counts. Medica, with its 18-month commitment and growing portfolio, continues to strive to be one of the best.
Medica is affiliated with Flourish Ventures, a global venture capital firm. Eligible African startups can apply through medica.vc.
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