Eligible African entrepreneurs are invited to submit proposal for Digital Africa’s Fuzé facility, the pre pre-seed investment scheme. Fuzé is a dedicated investment facility designed to inject essential, risk-tolerant capital into companies that are preparing or have just launched their ventures in Africa.
By focusing intensely on the critical pre-seed and seed phase, which often presents significant funding gaps, Fuzé provides not just financial backing but also a structured pathway toward achieving market readiness and attracting follow-on investment.
This is more than a traditional funding call; it’s an invitation to join an infrastructure designed to help African founders unlock their full potential.
About Digital Africa’s Fuzé facility
The Fuzé investment facility is a central component of Digital Africa’s broader mission. Digital Africa, a French government-backed organisation, was introduced by President Emmanuel Macron in 2018 to champion African tech entrepreneurs.
Digital Africa has strategically joined forces with Proparco (part of the AFD Group) to offer a true continuum of financing solutions. This collaborative effort ensures that startups receive support spanning their entire growth cycle, from the moment an idea is conceived through to its final scale-up.
The organisation’s mission, as stated by its leadership, is to “bring the keys to success to African tech entrepreneurs whose ecosystems are less well served.” This stems from a deep understanding that Africa’s innovation landscape, despite its vibrancy, is often challenged by structural hurdles.
These challenges include limited access to seasoned mentors, significant gaps in specialised legal and financial expertise, and inconsistent access to sophisticated go-to-market strategies. Without structured guidance, even the most promising ventures can struggle to gain traction.
It’s worth noting that accelerators, support programmes, and ecosystem enablers are now recognised as just as vital as venture capital in building resilient, sustainable African ventures. Fuzé, therefore, acts as a primary entry point into this essential, robust innovation infrastructure.
Understanding the Investment
It’s essential for potential applicants to understand the nature of this opportunity: Fuzé provides equity-based investment tickets. This means that Digital Africa becomes a shareholder in the company. It’s a business angel-style investment vehicle, offering patient, risk-tolerant capital right from the early stages of project development.
With €6.5 million mobilised for the fund, Fuzé invests in around 30 startups a year. The investment tickets range from €20,000 to €100,000, with the final amount tailored to the startup’s proven stage of maturity.
Fuzé employs a tiered funding structure that recognises incremental progress:
First Ideation Ticket (€20,000): This is typically for startups firmly in the ideation phase or those building an early Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Follow-up Ticket (€30,000): This ticket is generally offered to startups advancing toward crucial product-market validation. The average support provided to startups under the Fuzé initiative stands at €30,000.
Larger Investments (€50,000–€100,000): Tickets in this range are available for companies that are already showing meaningful traction or have secured co-investment interest.
This mechanism is unique because it perfectly addresses the concerns of early-stage African tech startups, ensuring that ventures needing seed capital in the €20,000 to €30,000 range can secure crucial initial funding from Digital Africa.
Who Can Apply?
Fuzé targets African tech entrepreneurs whose startups are at the pre-seed or seed stage.
Core Eligibility Requirements
To qualify for Fuzé, startups must meet these foundational criteria:
- Technology Component: The solution must be technology-driven, meaning it utilises tech as a lever for innovation in its product or business model.
- African Registration: The company must be registered in an African country.
- Founding Team: The company must have at least one founder who is an African citizen.
- Operational Base: Fuzé prefers that most of the company’s operations are on the continent. They may also consider the nationality of the founders or where the operational teams are primarily based.
Geographical and Stage-Specific Criteria
While the programme supports pan-African innovation, Fuzé specifically targets regions where funding deficiencies are most pronounced:
Francophone African Focus
Fuzé explicitly targets the 25 countries of French-speaking Africa. That’s because funding for ideation is still significantly underdeveloped in those markets. For startups in this targeted region at the idea or MVP stage, the criteria typically include:
The company is less than 18 months old. The startup has operations (cost or profit) in a French-speaking African country.
Country-Specific Calls
Fuzé also launches country-specific calls across Africa to target specific underserved markets. Current and recent calls have included the Tanzania Edition (with a deadline of June 18, 2025, for startups registered and operating in Tanzania with an active tech solution), alongside editions in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia.
Growth-Stage Criteria
The programme also welcomes slightly older startups, specifically those that have experienced significant growth or succeeded in raising initial funds. In such cases, the company must be less than 36 months old.
Target Sectors
Fuzé is generally sector-agnostic. However, Digital Africa prioritises backing high-impact, scalable solutions that directly address systemic challenges across the continent.
Startups supported by the Platform initiative are leading change in critical sectors such as:
- Fintech and financial inclusion
- Health tech
- Edtech
- Renewable energy
- Digital infrastructure
- Agri/foodtech
- Mobility & logistics
- Energy & climate solutions
The Platform Initiative
Crucially, Fuzé investment is tied directly to access to Platform, Digital Africa’s flagship support programme. The platform is recognised as a holistic support system designed to help portfolio startups grow, mature, and succeed. A typical support journey spans 12 months, offering both intensity and flexibility.
It’s easy to overlook how vital structured mentoring and expert advice are when navigating growth, especially compared to the excitement of capital.
Startup Diagnostic
The process starts with a detailed needs assessment when a startup joins the portfolio. This is smart because the approach relies on concrete data to create a tailored support journey, ensuring the company is matched only with the most relevant services and experts.
Performance Scoring
Digital Africa tracks progress systematically using a performance scoring system. This scoring occurs at entry, at key milestones, and again at the end of the programme. This approach allows both founders and Digital Africa to evaluate growth effectively and pinpoint new operational needs.
Expertise and Resources at Every Step
The platform offers a powerful mix of services to build capacity and accelerate growth:
Experts – Startups gain access to a network of specialised business experts. They provide targeted support to meet specific challenges in areas like strategy, finance, legal, communication, and investment readiness.
Mentoring – A dedicated pool of multidisciplinary mentors offers strategic advice and operational insights to guide the founders.
Tools – Curated digital tools and proven solutions are provided to help structure operations, increase efficiency, and support growth.
Opportunities – The platform actively connects its portfolio companies with high-value-added connections. This includes privileged access to their ecosystem, key events, and introductions to investors and partners, all based on the startup’s engagement and growth trajectory.
Fuzé Application Process
Digital Africa simplifies the financing process, emphasising steps that are both fast and transparent. Fuzé operates in a partnership logic, utilising a network of actors on the continent to identify and support targeted startups.
The process follows four main steps:
Deposit Application: The entrepreneur provides details about their company by completing the online application form.
Analysis & Due Diligence: The Fuzé team carefully examines the application against its investment criteria. It’s worth noting that if the startup already works with a support structure, like an accelerator or incubator, the Fuzé team will contact them to “get to know you better”.
Digital Africa Investment Committee: If the criteria are met, the startup moves to the pitch stage. The investment team reviews the proposal and makes the final decision.
In-depth Due Diligence, Closing, and Disbursement: The investment is finalised. If the company is still in the incorporation phase, Digital Africa is ready to become its first shareholder.
Expert Tips on Application
Since Fuzé applications are highly competitive, funding strategy experts stress the importance of precision and alignment. Reviewers are essentially looking for both a compelling vision and demonstrable feasibility.
Here are the key preparation tips for founders aiming for Fuzé investment:
Prioritise the Pitch Deck: You must have a clear and convincing pitch deck ready to present your solution and its potential impact.
Show Traction: Prepare your business model and traction metrics. Showing early traction, even if small, helps verify feasibility to the reviewers.
Local Alignment: Clearly define your value proposition and ensure your solution aligns closely with local market needs.
Articulate De-risking: Precisely articulate how Fuzé’s investment will help de-risk the next stage of your growth.
Scalable Vision: Submitting a solution that is locally grounded but globally scalable will strongly resonate with Digital Africa’s Pan-African mission.
Importantly, the evaluation criteria focus on the capacity and profile of the founding team and the startup’s growth potential and impact.
The Example of VerZ
The strategy of backing locally grounded, high-impact solutions is best illustrated through the example of VerZ, a health-tech startup based in Cameroon.
Founded in 2023 by Franck Verzefé, VerZ was established to tackle the sobering reality that over 50% of Africans lack access to essential medicines. VerZ’s digital platform partners with local pharmacies, enabling patients—insured or not—to access vital drugs through innovative deferred payment models. The ingenuity lies in how it adapts to local realities: VerZ leverages traditional African community savings systems, known as tontines, and microloan mechanisms to finance purchases, successfully disrupting the common requirement for cash-upfront payment.
This makes VerZ an intriguing blend of health tech and fintech, where medicine access hinges on affordability, not just availability. Mael Odina Eugène, an investment analyst at Digital Africa, confirmed that platforms like VerZ “bridge critical gaps in access to healthcare and demonstrate the transformative potential of African innovation”.
VerZ is currently scaling operations across Cameroon. Its framework, rooted in local realities and adhering to technological standards, is built for seamless scalability across the continent. Fuzé’s backing demonstrates the growing appetite for African tech solutions that blend social impact with economic opportunity. Fuzé has also supported other ventures, such as Fixa, which targets workforce management in Africa’s informal economy.
Key Takeaway
Fuzé by Digital Africa represents an exceptional opportunity for African tech entrepreneurs in the pre-seed or seed stage. The programme is specifically designed to provide essential early-stage capital alongside a robust innovation infrastructure.
By securing an equity ticket and gaining access to the 12-month Platform initiative—complete with specialised experts, curated digital tools, and strategic mentorship—founders aren’t just getting money; they’re getting the structured guidance needed to build resilient, sustainable ventures. This is how African innovators de-risk their investments and maximise their impact.
If you are a founder dedicated to solving a systemic continental challenge using technology, you should certainly review the specific country-based calls for applications, such as the open Tanzania Edition. Your startup could be the next to receive the financial and strategic lift required to become a global benchmark for innovation.
Source Links
- Digital Africa. (n.d.). Fuzé supports African tech entrepreneurs with investment tickets ranging from €20,000 to €100,000 [Web page]. Retrieved from https://www.digital-africa.co/en/fuze digital-africa.co
- Digital Africa. (n.d.). Fuzé soutient les entrepreneurs tech africains via des tickets d’investissement compris entre 20k et 100k € [Web page]. Retrieved from https://www.digital-africa.co/fuze digital-africa.co
- Startup.ma. (n.d.). FUZÉ: dispositif de financement en pré-amorçage destiné aux startups technologiques innovantes en Afrique [Web page]. Retrieved from https://www.start-up.ma/programmes-de-financement/fuze-de-digital-africa/ Start-Up
- Orange. (2024, May 23). Orange Ventures and Digital Africa commit to jointly invest in startups from the “Orange Digital Centers” network in Africa and the Middle East. [Press release]. Retrieved from https://newsroom.orange.com/orange-ventures-and-digital-africa-commit-to-jointly-invest-in-startups-from-the-orange-digital-centers-network-in-africa-and-the-middle-east?lang=eng Newsroom Groupe Orange