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How can we make sense of funding inequalities in the venture capital space in Africa? Stefan Ouma and Dr. Ben Mkalama, University of Nairobi, speak to this question in their new paper
Between 2015 and 2022, venture capital (VC) investments in Africa have increased significantly. However, a closer look reveals that these investments have been distributed unevenly in socio-spatial terms. In this article, we seek to demonstrate that the existing literature on the VC-inequality nexus in North America can help make sense of the interrelationship between VC allocation decision-making and socially differentiated access to VC in Africa. By summarizing existing findings on the VC allocation-inequality nexus and combining insights from different disciplines, we provide conceptual clarity through a systematic inventory of the existing literature. Secondly, by developing a view from Africa, we show how an engagement with VC from ‘the margins’ complicates existing narratives on investee discrimination mainly generated in a North American context. Finally, we filter our findings through VC experiences of Asian economies, where VC funding has often evaded the classic ‘race’ problem due to its domestic nature, even though these experiences are far from equal affairs.
The paper was published in the renowned journal Socio-economic Review and is part of a project of the Excellence Cluster “Africa Multiple” that investigates structures and dynamics of inequality in Kenya’s start-up economy. Read more about the project here, and the paper here.