One of the most main challenges that entrepreneurs face is a lack of capital. Entrepreneurship is significantly influenced by access to capital, both directly and indirectly. Barriers to entrepreneurship in terms of geography, demographics, and wealth are made worse by a capital market structure that does not recognize and enable most entrepreneurs.
Despite the fact that there have been many startups success stories over the past 20 years, the majority of startups still fail to progress past the early stages for a variety of reasons, including insufficient funding, a flawed business model or strategy, or difficulties with the product or the market.
Several structures are now in place to address the funding gap as well as to offer things like mentoring, skill development, and access to a wide network. MAGIC Fund specializes in funding and mentoring for startup founders and early-stage business owners.
About MAGIC Fund
MAGIC Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund founded by experienced founders-turned-investors that works to help other founders grow and scale their businesses by providing both access to capital and mentorship.
Launched in 2017, MAGIC Fund has Adegoke Olubusi, co-founder and CEO of Helium Health, serving as managing partner, and Matt Greenleaf serving as operating partner, with 12 founders from around the world who function as general partners.
The fund is based on two theories: one is that pooling the resources and finances of individual founder-investors opens the group up to more investment opportunities, which they can then assess better using their different areas of expertise; Secondly, MAGIC believes that smaller funds managed by founders outperform larger funds in early-stage investing. As a result, the fund invests in entrepreneurs that are solving global challenges in their early stages.
Unlike traditional investors, when MAGIC Fund invests in a startup, they go beyond simply providing funds but instead provide value by guiding them through the discovery of product-market fit, facilitating introductions and assisting with expansion into new regions, business model, marketing, fundraising, and strategic hiring.
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The team consists of experienced founders and partners that have built and operated leading companies all around the world and can offer value by tapping into their unique experience and network. Some of their limited partners include Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel, Tim Draper, Ace & Company, Rappi’s Andres Bilbao, Octopus Ventures’ Kirsten Connell, Paystack’s Shola Akinlade, Flutterwave’s Gbenga Agboola, and Katie Lewis, among others.
MAGIC Fund has so far invested in over 70 companies at pre-seed and seed stages across Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Southeast Asia. Some of those companies include Bankly, Eden Life, Bamboo, Mono, Chronus Health, Evolve Credit, Indicina, Oxygen, Kiwibot, Float etc.
