Samurai Incubate Africa
Samurai Incubate Africa is a Pre-Seed, Seed venture capital firm based in Cape Town, South Africa / Tokyo, Japan investing in Marketplace, Other. The firm typically writes $50K–$500K checks and has 39 portfolio companies in our records.
- Check size
- $50K–$500K
- Portfolio
- 39 companies on record
- Partners
- 2 listed
- Stage
- Pre-Seed, Seed
- Sectors
- Marketplace, Other
- HQ
- Cape Town, South Africa / Tokyo, Japan
- AUM
- Not in our records
Last verified: 2026-08-09
Pre-Seed, Seed
$50K – $500K
39+ companies
2 partners
Investment Thesis
Focus on early-stage startups in Africa addressing social and economic challenges through technology, particularly in marketplaces and informal economies.
How Samurai Incubate Africa invests
Samurai Incubate Africa is a vc firm based in Cape Town, South Africa / Tokyo, Japan. The firm invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages, with a focus on Marketplace, Other. It does not invest in Deep Tech, Enterprise SaaS.
Samurai Incubate Africa typically writes checks of $50K–$500K per investment.
Samurai Incubate Africa has backed 39 companies in our records, including Sendy, Lami, AmoebaX.
Partners & Team
Ryo Nakazawa
Managing Partner
At Samurai Incubate, Rena mainly covers deals in West Africa and Southern Africa as well as Francophone countries. Prior to joining Samurai Incubate, Rena accumulated careers in corporate & development finance in Japanese governmental banks such as Development Bank of Japan and Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Between 2015-2018, she worked for Japan International Cooperation Agency in Morocco and was engaged in project formulation and management of infrastructure projects. She received her undergraduate degree in Economics from Waseda University in Japan and Master of Science in Applied Economics from Cornell University in the U.S.A. She is fluent in English and French. Rena is a huge food lover, keen to explore authentic food while traveling, and also enjoys cooking.
Industry Focus
Invests In
Does Not Invest In
Portfolio Companies (39)
Other
Sendy
Lami
AmoebaX
Novek Technologies Inc
LETA
kenzz
My Health Africa
Welnes
YOURPARTS
Norebase
- •Raising at Pre-Seed, Seed? You're squarely in their sweet spot.
- •Lead with your fit in Marketplace, Other — the sectors they actively back.
- •Size your ask to their typical $50K – $500K check.
- •warm intro preferred
- •Address your outreach to a specific partner, such as Ryo Nakazawa, Managing Partner.
- •A warm introduction beats a cold email. Get matched and request an intro.
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