US-Based VC Fund P1 Ventures Completes $25M Close of Its Second Fund

P1 Ventures, a US-based Pan-African Seed VC fund that enables African founders and companies to build transformational businesses, completed the first $25 million close of its second fund.

Founded in 2020 by Mikael Hajjar and Hisham Halbouny, P1 Ventures is an early-stage VC fund that focuses on a small number of African founders and companies in fintech, e-commerce, healthtech, SaaS and AI. With a local-global approach, P1 leverages decades of experience operating and investing in African markets, supporting ambitious startups with global multi-stage and sector experience and its networks across the US, Europe and Asia.

“As far as I know, I’m the first Mauritanian who’s ever launched a fund. Coming from a relatively small economy inspires us at P1 Ventures to go off the beaten path and back the underdogs,” Mikael Hajjar, co-founder of P1 Ventures, tells StartupScene. “We love ambitious African founders who build products and services addressing a regional, if not global, customer base. Combining our deep local knowledge, our strong data orientation and our experience as investors, we can identify unique opportunities and help entrepreneurs become global winners.”

For every $1 invested, P1 Ventures’ companies have gone on to raise 35x more follow-on capital, on average, according to the fund.