Corporate Venture Capital Gains Momentum in Africa as Wema Bank Backs Early-Stage Startups
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Corporate venture capital (CVC) is becoming an increasingly influential force in Africa’s technology ecosystem, offering startups access to funding, infrastructure, and market credibility while helping large organisations accelerate innovation. More than 70% of African investors believe CVC can strengthen the continent’s startup landscape, a sentiment shared by Abdulyekeen Abdulazeez, innovation venture manager at Nigeria’s Wema Bank.
Abdulazeez, who previously worked at Ventures Platform and the Lagos Angel Network, now leads Wema Bank’s efforts to invest in and support early-stage startups. With a valuation of $552 million, the bank is positioning itself as a key player in Nigeria’s evolving digital economy.
“If we want investors who truly understand the market, people who understand the local context, the operational realities, and what it takes to build in Africa, then corporates are among the best positioned,” Abdulazeez told said. “Many of them have survived and scaled through decades of economic cycles, regulatory uncertainty, and infrastructural gaps.”
Wema Bank’s investment strategy focuses on helping startups reach product–market fit by offering capital and access to its digital infrastructure. Portfolio companies use the bank’s wallet and payout APIs and gain exposure to Wema’s customer base, internal teams, and partners. According to Abdulazeez, this gives startups “immediate access to the kind of infrastructure and credibility that would normally take months or years to build on their own.”
The bank invests an average of $40,000 per startup and remains sector-agnostic, including backing companies building products that compete with traditional banking offerings. “We don’t view innovation that overlaps with traditional banking lines as a threat,” Abdulazeez says. “Startups are indispensable allies.”
The bank’s flagship initiative, Hackaholics, plays a central role in its CVC strategy. The programme has supported more than 100 ventures, including TeamApt (now Moniepoint), Plumter, Feegor, MyItura, and Build Africa.
Abdulazeez is also a co-founder of Ule Homes, a rent-financing startup created after he and his postgraduate classmates faced similar challenges securing housing.
Asked about the bank’s current investment thesis, he explains that the focus is not on financial “gaps” but on opportunities. “Startups have shown incredible agility and speed in solving real market problems,” he said. “Our goal is to support that momentum by giving them what they need most market access, infrastructure, credibility, and operational support.”
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