Most European venture capital firms that venture into African markets tell the same story. They write a few checks, watch their investments struggle, then retreat with tales of why “emerging markets don’t work.” But SpeedInvest, a Vienna-based VC firm with over €1 billion in assets under management, rewrote that narrative entirely.
The graveyard of failed European investments in Africa is littered with firms that approached the continent with Silicon Valley playbooks and European assumptions. They funded companies through accelerator programs like Y Combinator, cherry-picked founders living near their London offices, and wondered why they couldn’t access the best deals happening “behind closed doors.”
SpeedInvest took a radically different approach. Instead of trying to impose European investment patterns, they embraced what Principal Enrique Martinez Houseman calls “the WhatsApp life” and committed to understanding local nuances. The firm’s partners spend months on the road, building relationships and adapting to how business actually gets done in emerging markets.
Their breakthrough came through pattern recognition rather than local expertise. Having successfully invested in European fintech companies like Wefox (now worth €1.6 billion), SpeedInvest could spot similar opportunities in different markets. When they evaluated mobility financing in Nigeria, they drew insights from their European lending experience to identify Move, which reached a $550 million valuation.
The key turning point was creating what Houseman describes as a “flywheel effect.” Early wins like Move and Fair Money (which serves over 2 million customers) made SpeedInvest attractive to other exceptional founders. “If you’re able to invest in early winners in a new ecosystem, this attracts amazing founders,” Houseman explained on the Rally Cap Podcast. “It’s the same flywheel that Sequoia benefited from in Silicon Valley’s early days.”
This strategy paid off spectacularly. Their portfolio now includes ShopUp in Bangladesh, which has generated over $1 billion in GMV and raised more than $200 million from Sequoia and Valar. Fair Money became one of Nigeria’s largest consumer lenders, while companies like Shara and Kaza continue scaling across multiple markets.
SpeedInvest’s success also came from recognizing market dynamics that other VCs missed. While multiple VC-backed companies fought over limited revenue pools in competitive markets like Nigeria’s B2B space, SpeedInvest found ShopUp in Bangladesh’s less crowded ecosystem. “There’s six VC-backed companies going after a $100 million opportunity, the pie is split too thin,” Houseman notes.
The firm’s contrarian bet on lending, which most VCs avoid, proved prescient. While other investors chase sexier SaaS multiples, SpeedInvest recognized that lending addresses the most pressing need in emerging markets. “People don’t want saving products in Nigeria,” Houseman observes. “They’re struggling to pay bills and need help bridging that gap.”
For other European investors eyeing emerging markets, SpeedInvest’s playbook offers clear lessons: respect local practices, leverage existing expertise rather than pretending to be local, and focus on solving real problems rather than chasing trends. Most importantly, commit for the long term rather than making opportunistic bets.
The emerging markets opportunity remains vast, but success requires abandoning the assumptions that work in mature markets. SpeedInvest proved that with the right approach, European VCs can build meaningful portfolios beyond their home turf.