Raba Partners Research
Investment Thesis
Raba Partners is not a traditional venture capital fund but rather a long-term business partnership focused on founders building category-defining African technology companies. The firm believes in tight founder-investor-LP alignment with significant team co-investment and deep operational support. They focus on internet-first software rails for African economies, enabling movement of capital and essential goods. Their expertise spans fintech, crypto/stablecoin infrastructure, logistics, healthcare, and climate technology across the African continent and MENA region.
Sector Focus & Stage
Raba Partners invests primarily in:
- Fintech & Payments: The largest portion of their portfolio, focusing on payment APIs, banking infrastructure, and financial services for emerging markets
- Crypto & Stablecoins: Digital asset infrastructure, DeFi, crypto exchanges, and stablecoin payment rails
- Logistics & Supply Chain: Digital freight forwarding and supply chain solutions
- Healthcare & Biotech: Digital health tools and genomics research focused on African populations
- Climate & Clean Energy: Renewable energy software and tools
- Consumer & E-commerce: Regional commerce platforms and fintech-enabled consumer services
The firm invests from pre-seed through Series A and beyond, with a typical check size range of $100,000 to $3 million. Recent activity in 2024-2025 shows strong deployment, particularly in fintech companies that have demonstrated resilience through the "fintech winter" and are now scaling aggressively.
Fund Details & Recent Activity
Raba Partnership II closed at $59.6M in November 2024, marking their second dedicated fund. As of December 2025, they have made 37+ investments across their portfolio. The firm is actively deploying capital with recent investments including:
- Ezeebit (December 2025): Led $2.05M seed funding for stablecoin payment infrastructure
- Multiple follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies that have achieved product-market fit
- 84% of Raba 2 portfolio companies (by NAV) raised priced institutional rounds since Q4 2024, with no adverse terms
- Additional 8% of companies in advanced fundraising conversations (targeting 92% by end of cycle)
The firm's portfolio demonstrates strong resilience and growth. In their recent "Time for IPOs" thesis (June 2025), Raba highlighted that 58% of Raba 1 and 84% of Raba 2 companies have raised significant follow-on capital with valuations reflecting progress. They identify several portfolio companies approaching $300M+ annual revenue—a critical IPO benchmark.
Lead Tendency & Decision Process
Raba Partners actively leads rounds in their priority areas, particularly in fintech and crypto infrastructure spaces where they can provide deep operational expertise. They position themselves as long-term partners, often participating across multiple rounds for companies demonstrating strong growth and durable business models. The firm emphasizes founder-centric decision-making with a partnership mentality rather than traditional governance.
Geographic Focus
Primary: Africa (Cape Town headquarters, strong presence across East, West, and Southern Africa) Secondary: MENA region (particularly Egypt and broader Middle East and North Africa) Notable Markets: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, across Sub-Saharan Africa
Raba has strategic interest in India-Africa and China-Africa trade corridors as these shape infrastructure and capital flow to the continent.
Team & Partners
- George Rzepecki (Co-Founder/GP): Relocated from San Francisco to Cape Town to build Raba. Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Background in emerging market ecosystems.
- Iyin Aboyeji (Partner): Former CEO of Flutterwave (pan-African payments infrastructure). Co-founder of Andela (Africa's largest engineering organization with 1000+ engineers, backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Google Ventures). World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Forbes 30 Under 30, board member of several institutions.
- Katlego Maphai (Partner): Co-founder and CEO of Yoco, South Africa's leading fintech providing mobile point-of-sale and card reading solutions to small businesses.
- Iqram Magdon-Ismail (Partner): Co-founder of Venmo (acquired by PayPal for $800M; currently 76M+ users, $900M+ annual revenue). Founder of Ense (social voice platform). Grew up in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda. Named one of Inc.'s 30 Under 30 (2010), Carnegie Foundation "Great Immigrant" honoree (2016).
- Cordel Robbin-Coker (Partner): 10+ years as entrepreneur and investor in frontier markets. Co-founder/CEO of Carry1st (full-stack publisher of social games for frontier markets). Previously led Carlyle Group's Sub-Saharan Africa Fund.
- Nina Chen (Operating Partner): 6 years in management consulting, start-up operations, and early-stage investing across US and Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously led growth and strategy at African Leadership Group.
Portfolio Highlights
Raba's portfolio spans 37+ investments across multiple sectors. Notable portfolio companies include Flutterwave (payments API), Stitch (API infrastructure), Yoco (merchant payments), VALR (crypto exchange), YellowCard (crypto payments), Kobo360 (logistics), Twiga Foods (e-commerce), 54gene (genomics), and many others across fintech, crypto, logistics, healthcare, and climate sectors.
Market Context & Outlook
Raba's 2025 commentary highlights:
- African fintech companies represent less than 1% of $600B annual financial services revenues in Africa/MENA (vs. 5% in Latin America, 3% globally)
- Fintechs growing 3x faster than incumbent financial institutions
- Post-fintech-winter resurgence: Companies are more profitable, resilient, and competitive
- Multiple portfolio companies approaching $1B+ annual revenue trajectories (IPO-ready scale)
- Structural tailwinds from China-Africa ($295B trade in 2024), India-Africa, and GCC-Africa capital flows