Between 2018 and 2022, Silverbacks Holdings, an Africa-focused private equity firm, made a series of investments in multiple tech startups primarily in the fintech and e-commerce sectors.
Those investments are paying off. In the past month alone, the firm has secured two exits by selling part of its shares in Lemfi and Omniretail. Lemfi delivered a 29x return, while Omniretail delivered a more tempered but still strong 5x return.
Though not structured as a traditional venture capital firm, Silverbacks Holdings invests with a VC-style risk appetite, and its portfolio reflects that. The firm backs some of Africa’s most valuable startups, including Flutterwave and Wave, alongside high-growth startups like Moove, Sabi, Kuda, Shuttlers, and Reliance. It also backs nine venture capital firms like Launch Africa and LoftyInc.
Fintech has been its standout performer, generating a 13.7x multiple on invested capital (MOIC), while e-commerce investments have returned a still-impressive 4x MOIC. The firm also invests in Africa’s media, sport and entertainment sectors, backing creator platform AMAKA, the Cape Town Tigers, and the African Warriors Fighting Championship (AWFC).
“We view sports and entertainment as defensive assets,” Ibrahim Sagna, the firm’s executive chairman, told TechCabal. “While the multiples are lower than tech, these businesses have recurring revenue, especially since they are tied to platforms like Netflix or leagues like the NBA.”
Nigeria has been Silverbacks’ most rewarding geography, with its local portfolio returning an average 10.7x MOIC, while Egypt has delivered a 9.7x MOIC, though over a shorter holding period. Overall, the firm’s African investments have returned nearly four times the capital deployed on the continent, far outpacing its global performance. Outside Africa, Silverbacks’ exits have yielded a more modest 1.3x MOIC.
I spoke to Sagna to understand how the firm thinks about investing in Africa, its strategy of partial exits, why it prefers family offices as LPs, how it balances tech and non-tech businesses in its portfolio, and why it invests in VC firms like Launch Africa and LoftyInc.
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