The maiden Africa Capital Allocators Mixer pulled together lawyers, venture capitalists and founders last Friday in Lagos for a conversation that has been simmering quietly across Nigeria’s startup scene for years: is pre-seed capital actually available, or is the entire category being redefined out from under the people who need it most?
The event, powered by MarlVC and Bullion, was hosted and moderated by Amarachi Nwachukwu, a Venture Partner at MarlVC, brokering the much-needed critical handshake between Nigerian tech founders and the venture capitalists holding the purse.
Two panels anchored the evening: one on legal readiness, featuring Chukwuebuka Okoli-Akirika, Senior Associate at Duale, Ovia & Alex-Adedipe (DOA), and one on investment realities, with Samuel Frank of Sahara Ventures, Mercy Ndubueze of WEAV Capital and Ryan K. Uche-Tasie of Lava VC.
By the end of the night, one thing was clear. Nobody in that room disagreed that money exists. What they disagreed on, sometimes sharply, was what it now costs to get it.
Nwachukwu opened by explaining what MarlVC actually does: a 12-week virtual accelerator, initial cheques of $50,000, with follow-on funding between $100,000 and $250,000. But she used her introduction to air a grievance she said she hears constantly from founders.
“VCs announce new funds, Fund 1 and Fund 2, and founders ask where this money is actually going,” she said, describing the confusion founders feel when fundraising announcements don’t seem to translate into cheques reaching them. She said she’d sat on both sides of the table, first as a founder and now as an investor, and wanted the evening to bridge that gap directly.
What “investment-ready” actually means, legally
Okoli-Akirika laid out a pattern…
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