P1 Ventures, an early-stage Pan-African venture capital firm established in Egypt in 2020, has announced the closing of its first institutional fund with USD 50 million.
This milestone arrives amid a challenging period for African venture capital as foreign investors have returned to safer, more established markets.
“We have strong conviction there will be billions of USD of value created by global companies that have been ‘made in Africa’,” says Mika Hajjar, Managing Partner at P1 Ventures. “From Dakar to Nairobi, Cairo to Cape Town, we’re seeing founders combining local insights with global ambition.
These entrepreneurs are not just solving Africa’s problems — they’re creating models from which the rest of the world can learn.”
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The firm’s contrarian approach involves looking beyond the traditional tech hubs of Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa to identify the next generation of bold African entrepreneurs.
P1 Ventures utilises AI to analyse market data, spot high-growth enterprises, track trends, and identify talent across the continent, including in Francophone Africa.
To date, P1’s portfolio companies have generated over 6,000 jobs across 20 countries, impacting the lives of more than 10 million people.
P1’s funding vision
P1’s investment in Nuitee exemplifies this approach. The company, founded by a Silicon Valley-trained engineer who returned to Morocco, leverages AI to address a global challenge within the hospitality industry.
This focus on “Built in Africa for the World” companies, which leverage the continent’s unique advantages and AI’s potential to transcend borders, is a key element of P1’s new fund strategy.
The firm’s total assets under management now exceed $60 million. P1 Ventures has already backed startups in various sectors, including fintech and artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on businesses poised for high-impact growth.
Hisham Halbouny, Managing Partner at P1 Ventures, stated, “From game-changing fintech to pioneering AI applications, we’re uniquely positioned to identify opportunities and support their growth”.
He added, “Great companies are often built in tough times, and today’s founders are more frugal, focused, and realistic about valuations. We believe this may be the greatest vintage ever”.
Read also: African-focused P1 Ventures closes $25m AI fund
P1 Ventures Strategic Investments
P1 Ventures’ recent activities include co-investing with Accel in Nuitee, a Moroccan AI-powered hotel booking platform, which raised a $48 million Series A round.
The firm has also backed Algerian super app Yassir and Moroccan fintech Chari. By investing in startups like Egypt’s AI-powered DevOps platform StakPak and South Africa’s software deployment firm Salus, P1 Ventures is supporting companies that are not only solving local challenges but also exporting African innovation globally.
The fund attracted investments from African conglomerates, family offices, global tech executives, venture capital partners, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Senior advisors include Bernard Dalle, a founding team member of Index Ventures, and Emil Michael, former Chief Business Officer at Uber.
The closing of the USD 50 million fund was announced on February 9th, 2025. Mikael Hajjar co-founded P1 Ventures with Hisham Halbouny.