DPI closes $112 million Nclude fund with 93% of capital from Africa.
DPI Venture Capital, the early-stage arm of Development Partners International—a private equity firm managing more than $3 billion in assets across Africa—has reached a final close of over $112 million for its Nclude Fund.
Ashley Lewis, managing partner and head of DPI Venture Capital, told TechCabal that virtually all the capital was committed by financial services institutions, with 93% originating from within Africa.
By comparison, African investors supplied just 37% of the funding secured by the continent’s startups in the first half of 2026, according to TechCabal Insights .
At $112 million, Nclude’s final close exceeds the combined total raised by all Africa-focused venture funds in 2025: the African Private Capital Association (AVCA) recorded just six final closes totalling $107 million that year, an 87% drop compared with 2024. The fund is notable not only for its scale in a depressed market, but because it reverses the conventional architecture of African venture capital, where development finance institutions (DFIs) and Western limited partners typically anchor the ecosystem. “There is a lot of discussion about how funds can move beyond the DFI-backed model to more commercial funding, and I think Nclude and DPI Venture Capital show that there are working paths to capital from unusual sources,” said Lewis. Nclude started in March 2022 as a fintech fund in Egypt, launched after the Central Bank of Egypt approved it.
MSEApp News is publishing an original rewrite of this tip for readers, based on reporting associated with TechCabal.