Vienna-based Speedinvest has launched its first dedicated fund for the Middle East and Africa, backed by Mubadala, the Qatar Investment Authority and EIB Global.
The fund is led by partners Deepali Nangia and Rana Abdel Latif and will invest across fintech, embedded finance, health, climate, AI, consumer and digital infrastructure in markets spanning MENAPT and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Speedinvest has not disclosed the overall fund size, though the Africa-dedicated component has a maximum size of €200 million under EIB's project terms, with the bank's €40 million anchor signed in March. At least 30% of capital in that vehicle will go to companies supporting women as founders, employees or consumers, qualifying it under the 2X Challenge.
Mubadala committed through its MENA Venture Capital Fund, which backs ADGM-anchored managers, making Speedinvest part of the sovereign wealth fund's broader push to build out the UAE's venture ecosystem. QIA's involvement followed the expansion of its Fund of Funds programme from $1 billion to $3 billion at Web Summit Qatar in February, which brought Speedinvest into a cohort of 12 fund managers, each establishing a Doha presence.
EIB Global took the anchor on the Africa vehicle to catalyse additional institutional fundraising at a moment when European investors, historically the largest source of commitments into African funds, accounted for just 21% of fundraising last year, down from 70% between 2022 and 2024.
Speedinvest has made over 16 investments in African startups and deployed more than $345 million across the continent, alongside holdings in the Middle East and South Asia that bring the broader emerging markets portfolio to more than 30 companies.
The headline holding is Moove, the Lagos-founded mobility fintech the firm backed alongside Left Lane Capital from early rounds, which has since raised over $460 million in equity and debt, expanded to 19 markets, hit EBITDA break-even in 2024, acquired Brazilian mobility firm Kovi in January 2025 and moved into autonomous vehicle fleet management through a partnership with Alphabet's Waymo, running electric robotaxi fleets in Phoenix and Miami.
The rest of the regional portfolio includes FairMoney (Nigeria), Khazna (Egypt/KSA), Abhi (Pakistan/UAE/KSA), MoPhones (Kenya), Flow48 (UAE/South Africa), Pemo (UAE), Silq (KSA/Bangladesh), Abwab (KSA), Julaya (Côte d'Ivoire), Oze (Ghana), Precium (South Africa) and Anda (Angola), its most recent African investment from November 2025.
Speedinvest manages over €1.2 billion in assets and closed its fourth Europe-focused fund at €350 million in 2024 alongside €250 million in follow-on capital. It opened its first office outside Europe in the UAE, plans to open one on the African continent and is setting up in Qatar as part of its QIA commitment.
The fund will target the gap in early growth capital, Series A and B rounds, that Nangia and Abdel Latif have identified across the region, where seed funding has become relatively available over the past several years but the transition from seed to scale remains chronically underfunded.
