Founder Institute (FI), the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, today announces Pacer Ventures as 'Investor in
Residence' for the Founder Institute's African Accelerator program. As part of the program, all startups that graduate
the Founder Institute in Africa will be reviewed by Pacer Ventures for potential investment in their seed or pre-seed
round of funding.
This development follows the announcement of Founder Institute as a strategic partner of Pacer Ventures for African
early-stage start-ups that are solving some of the most critical problems on the continent. Pacer VC's purpose is
aligned with FI's mission to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful, technology-enabled
companies worldwide.
"FI is quickly becoming the gold standard for pre-seed acceleration in Africa," says Ryan Micheletti, Head of Global
Operations for the Founder Institute. "We are excited to strengthen our leadership position by partnering with Pacer
Ventures to foster investment in FI Alumni all across the Continent."
FI has an Alumni strength of 100+ companies tackling various challenges across the continent and this is bound to grow
with FI's expanded footprint in Africa and Pacer's move to increase access to early-stage funding.
Managing Partner of Pacer Ventures, Gbemi Akande, sees value in formalizing the partnership with the Silicon Valley
based program. "Our partnership is in line with what Pacer VC was set up to accomplish. By partnering with Founder
Institute, we at Pacer VC will accelerate our mission of supporting early stage companies. It is a win-win and we look
forward to a mutually beneficial collaboration with FI."
Pacer Ventures was one of a handful of new funds selected to pitch to a global gathering of limited partners from around
the world at the VC Lab Venture Forum, which has also led to increased interest from LPs around the world.
Geoffrey Weli-Wosu, General Partner at Pacer Ventures, said, "Founder Institute stands out as one of the top pre-seed
accelerators across the African continent. Pacer Ventures is committed to supporting startups coming out of the program
who can support the transformation of the continent."
Pacer Ventures will continue to leverage its strategic partnership with Founder Institute chapters throughout Africa to
identify and recommend winning teams with scalable solutions that meet market needs. Similarly, Pacer Ventures has
partnered with techbuild.africa to provide marketing and promotional support for FI portfolio companies across Africa.
General Partner at Pacer Ventures and FI Regional Director, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata stated, "Africa faces many
challenges, but within every challenge lies opportunity and young people are leveraging technology to solve these
problems across the Continent. It is our duty to inspire and fund the entrepreneurs who are building valuable solutions
to our most pressing problems. Africa is the future, and investors and LPs are now becoming aware of this."
About Founder Institute
Founder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator. Since 2009, we have helped over 4,500
entrepreneurs get the focus and support needed to build a business that matters. Based in Silicon Valley with chapters
across 90 countries, Founder Institute's mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build
impactful technology companies worldwide. To learn more, please visit http://fi.co.
About Pacer Ventures
Pacer Ventures has a strategic relationship with Founder Institute, the world's premier pre-seed startup accelerator, to
provide investment thesis support, structure, templates, tools, deal flow, potential seed, and mentorship support across
all segments of the funding operation for African startups.
Pacer email: info@pacer.vc
Official website: https://pacer.vc/
Pacer blog: https://pacer.vc/blog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pacerventures