Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures

When OMERS Ventures invests in you, you join a connected community of ambitious entrepreneurs around the world. You also become part of the broader OMERS family, a ready-made network dedicated to fueling your success. A startup superhighway: A shortcut to meaningful connections to drive your growth. A connected community: Assets like Hudson Yards, the Royal Exchange in London, Premise Health, Lifelabs, London City Airport, Bruce Power and the Port of Melbourne are all part of the OMERS family. Investment with a purpose: Our investments generate returns that pay the pensions of municipal workers including firefighters, paramedics and librarians. Our beliefsWe stay curious: The smartest people know they have a lot to learn. We ask questions constantly, so we’ll have the answers when our companies need them. We do our homework: We learn all we can before we sit down at the table. When we call you, we’re serious about your industry and company potential. We're always happy to hear from you: Whether it's good news or bad, we're here to listen and lend a hand. We were founded in Canada, so you can count on us to be nice no matter what. We’re networking engineers: We connect the dots between our network of people, assets and capital and our portfolio companies, building pathways between our partners. Family benefitsGrowth-based networking: We use our globally connected network of OMERS-owned properties, partners and scale infrastructure to help our companies grow faster. Global Scale: Our international structure means we might know the right people at the right places, around the world. OMERS offers entry into a global network of service area experts and potential partners. Tap into our powerhouse of procurement services, security expertise and property infrastructure. Long-term stability: We invest to win, and we’re prepared to play the long game. Our unique funding structure means we’re not bound by traditional fund cycles or pressure from partners. Our end goal is your success.

As capital becomes a commodity with more early-stage investors flocking to Africa, what will make us stand out will be our networks, relationships, and reputations. What we look forLarge Markets: A clear market opportunity that is massive and growing, captured through a scalable business model. We aim at reaching sustainable impact across a large audience by addressing deep markets, or investing in market-creating innovations. Scalable Economics: Tech-enabled businesses with proven, highly leverageable and defensible revenues, coupled with the ability to improve unit economics through cost and capital efficiency are able to achieve top-trend growth more easily than less efficient business structures. We are disciplined in ensuring the unit economics of the business we invest in are sustainable and attractive. Strong Agile Teams: We are looking for founders that combine strategic vision and executional capacity. Strong teams tend to be bound by a cohesive, inclusive, all-hands-on deck culture. We are seeking founders and teams guided by a clear value proposition and differentiated position in the market. Repeatable Growth: Solutions with highly replicable growth models and transferable problem-solution sets can most benefit from our growth investment and market expansion facilitation. As African markets are not uniform, we carefully model and test solution-market fit. How much funding will you get? If you are an African founder of a tech enabled startup that is solving a significant African development challenge please apply here. If you have little or no revenues, we will refer you to our Angel Fund for $10k to $100k funding consideration. If you have meaningful revenues with high growth potential, we may invest $50k-$250k.

As a privately financed venture capital investor with flexible long-term capital, we are looking for exceptional founders who are committed to building category leaders over 5-10+ years. We invest in early-stage technology ventures with a focus on Real Estate, Finance & Insurance, Human Resources, Renewable Energy, Mobility, E-Commerce and Health. Picus predominantly makes initial investments in Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A ventures. We follow a very long-term investment approach investing significant amounts throughout the lifecycle of a company. Our culture combines the discipline of a financial investor with the creativity and pragmatism of an entrepreneur. We have invested in over 140 companies to date. Our Investment Approach Pre-Seed Investing We are the lifelong sparring partner for entrepreneurs from the early days onwards – no matter whether the path is already clear or to be defined: From discussing new markets, opportunities & trends to sharing feedback & insights and finetune existing concepts. We create a unique environment for an iterative sparring process and offer value-adding support structures throughout various dimensions. Seed & Series A Investing Seed & Series A investing to us means to partner with exceptional founding teams who pursue daring technology business models in massive markets. Our value proposition goes far beyond pure capital commitments. By becoming one of the closest partners of our portfolio companies and by leveraging our industry and functional expertise, network access and HR support, we help to bring ventures to the next level and create a foundation for accelerated growth with the ambition to build international category leaders. Our Vision Empowering entrepreneurs to reimagine the way we live and work. Our Mission Picus works together with daring technology companies that are challenging the status quo and shaping tomorrow.

WEX Venture Capital invests in early-stage companies focused on electric mobility, including fleet electrification, EV charging solutions, and energy management.WEX Venture Capital invests in early-stage companies focused on electric mobility, including fleet electrification, EV charging solutions, and energy management. Already a trusted advisor to fleet mobility customers, including more than 18 million vehicles serviced globally as of Q2 2023, WEX Venture Capital is focused on leading the commercial EV transition, and helping WEX customers move toward a mixed fleet future. Why partner with WEXAccess to our community of customers and partners WEX’s expertise in fleet mobility and payments Capital investment Why now is the time to engage in the energy transition Facing climate change and fluctuating oil prices, WEX has engaged in the transition toward sustainable energy. A March 2023 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report counsels that it is still possible to hold global warming to relatively safe levels, but accomplishing this will require:

“Spero” is Latin for hope. We help founders build a hopeful future. We’re a team of former startup founders, operators, and investors from landmark companies including eBay and Tesla. We invest in determined founders building mission-driven technology companies in three focus areas: wellbeing; sustainability; learning, work, and play. We prefer to lead or co-lead a $3-$10M round (late seed or Series A). Our typical check is $2-$4M, and we reserve capital for follow-on. We are conviction-based investors who play the long game. How We Work With YouWe have the conviction to lead and price your round. We participate in follow-on funding and help with subsequent fundraising. Our concentrated portfolio approach allows us to engage deeply with our founders. We’re supportive throughout the life of a company. Every one of our founders has full access to the entire Spero Ventures team. We know some ideas take time to catch on, so we offer patient capital. We are calm and steady partners in uncertain times. We help companies scale to serve billions of customers. We’ve done this as operators and founders, and as advisors and board members. We connect our companies to a network of founders, advisors, coaches, domain experts, and executive talent. We build community by bringing founders and leaders together through our CEO Summits, Product Leader Summits, founder breakfasts, workshops and thought-provoking events. We offer expert-led workshops that help founders with brand/storytelling, sales/go-to-market, consumer growth, and fundraising. Our focus Wellbeing Agency over physical and mental health People deserve to be in control of their own physical and mental health. For that, they need new kinds of information and access to care. What devices, apps, tools and services will help people live longer, healthier, more vibrant lives? How can genomics help us better understand our world and ourselves, and contribute to new solutions? Companies that answer these questions will make life worth living. Sustainability Protecting and preserving our planet Life is worth living on a healthy planet. But many of the largest systems we rely on - water, food, energy, transportation, product production and waste - were designed in a way that’s unsustainable and detrimental to our personal and planetary health. The economic, social, and health impacts of climate change and industrial pollution are growing too large to ignore: unprecedented droughts, fires and floods have disrupted millions of lives and result in billions of dollars of loss each year. How can we develop safer, more efficient systems? What can we do to improve power grids, recycling, environmental monitoring and disaster analytics? We invest in sustainability with conviction. Learning, Work, and Play Freedom in work and life Savoring relationships, art, joy, and laughter makes life worth living. Today, the way we do these things is changing. We can now learn, work, and play in hybrid ways that suit individual needs. This means self-directed learners need access to education and job preparation. Likewise, self-directed workforces need freedom, flexibility, and the ability to manage their goals. How can we provide better access to rewarding, satisfying work? What tools and support systems do people need to thrive? We invest in powerful visions for the future of learning, work, and play.

As one of the world's largest financial services organisations, we have the power of scale to develop and deploy smart solutions globally, with a focus on delivering excellent customer experiences. Our areas of expertise Security, crime prevention and identity Protecting the bank and its customers against threats Cybersecurity Compliance tools Digital identity Biometrics Cloud, data and analytics Utilising data and the Cloud to provide enhanced services in a secure manner Foundation tools (Data storage & management, artificial intelligence / machine learning) Governance Insights Decisioning Operational Efficiency Digitising workflows Automation No code development (NCD) Paper digitisation Communications Future of work Banking access Digital access to Banking services anytime, anywhere Open finance Banking as a service (BaaS) Embedded finance Payments Platforms & networks Customer interaction Emerging Technology Preparing for the future of Banking Quantum computing Internet of things (IoT) 5G technology Digital assets Borderless financial Services Exploring all aspects of Financial Services and its intersection with adjacent industries Neo FS Smart cities Real estate Automotive Wellness Energy Subscription services Impact & Sustainability Investing to catalyse positive change Environmental Social & corporate governance (ESG) Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Education