DPI Closes Nclude Fund at Over $112 Million for Africa, Middle East Tech

DPI Venture Capital has closed its Nclude Fund at more than $112 million to back technology companies across Africa and the Middle East. The firm announced the final close this week. The figure marks a milestone for a vehicle that began life in Egypt in 2022 as a fintech-focused fund and now writes cheques from $500,000 to $10 million.

Development Partners International, the fund's parent, restructured Nclude in 2025 and brought it under the investment advisory management of its newly launched venture platform, DPI Venture Capital. Since then, the platform has selectively expanded the fund's investor base. It brought in additional limited partners whose investment priorities align with its strategy.

What does the fund invest in?

Nclude backs fintech, fintech-enabled businesses and financial inclusion ventures. Its focus sits at the intersection of financial technology, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. The fund invests from seed stage through Series C. Individual investments range from $500,000 to $10 million.

Egypt remains a core market and a base for companies seeking expansion across Africa and the Middle East. But Nclude is not an Egypt-only vehicle. Some 30% of its investment mandate is available for opportunities outside Egypt, supporting businesses with the potential to enter new markets and build regional operations.

The strategy reflects a simple bet: companies that start in Cairo can scale into the Gulf, North Africa and beyond. The fund's portfolio is already testing that thesis.

Who is already in the portfolio?

Nclude has invested in 15 companies across Africa and the Middle East. Several have raised substantial follow-on rounds:

• Nawy, an Egyptian property technology company, raised $52 million in a Series A round to support its expansion across the Middle East and North Africa.
• Paymob, an Egyptian payments company operating in the UAE and the wider Gulf region, raised $35 million in a pre-Series C round led by Mubadala and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
• FlapKap, a UAE-based fintech company, raised $34 million in a pre-Series A round to support SME financing and expansion across the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
• Money Fellows raised $13 million to support financial inclusion and expansion across North Africa, including Morocco.
• Kera, an artificial intelligence company focused on healthcare access, operates in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
• Accord Partners, an AI-driven venture, is consolidating businesses in the accounting and auditing sector, with an initial focus on Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region.

The portfolio spans payments, property tech, SME financing and AI applications. That spread is deliberate.

How has the thesis changed under DPI?

Ashley Lewis, Managing Partner and Head of DPI Venture Capital, said Nclude's original investment thesis focused on improving financial inclusion across Africa and the Middle East. Since taking over as investment adviser, DPI has built a portfolio aligned with that objective while expanding the fund's regional reach and investment themes.

Those themes now go beyond payments. Lewis said they include affordable insurance and healthcare access, improving credit availability for small and medium-sized enterprises, and helping individuals save and invest for the future.

Lewis also pointed to the fund's positioning in the current market. With more than $112 million in commitments, she said the fund is positioned to invest selectively and support founders as they develop successful local businesses into regional technology companies.

Why does the Africa-Middle East corridor matter here?

Mohamed Aladdin, General Partner at DPI Venture Capital, said companies across the fund's portfolio are increasingly looking beyond their domestic markets as they grow. He highlighted the expanding commercial links between Africa and the Middle East. Those links, he said, are creating opportunities for businesses to reach new customers and enter additional markets.

The pattern is visible in the portfolio. Egyptian companies are expanding into the Gulf. Businesses are entering North Africa. Companies from other regional markets are establishing operations in Egypt. Aladdin cited Nawy, Paymob, Money Fellows and FlapKap as examples of companies demonstrating the potential to build regional technology businesses from these markets.

The fund is effectively arbitraging a gap. African and Middle Eastern startups often lack growth capital that comes with regional operational support. Nclude's structure — an Egypt base, a 30% non-Egypt mandate and a cheque range reaching $10 million — is designed to fill that gap at seed through Series C stages.

What does this mean for DPI's broader strategy?

Sofiane Lahmar, Chief Executive Officer of Development Partners International, framed the fund close as part of a larger platform play. The launch of DPI Venture Capital as a dedicated platform strengthens the firm's ability to invest in technology businesses at earlier stages of their development, he said. The platform combines specialist venture capital expertise with DPI's wider investment experience, networks and capabilities to support companies expanding across Africa and the Middle East.

Lahmar added that the strategy is intended to help ambitious technology companies scale across regional markets while delivering returns for investors and advancing financial inclusion.

The dual objective — commercial returns plus financial inclusion — is the defining tension of the fund. DPI's bet is that the two goals reinforce each other across a region where large populations remain outside formal financial systems.

With $112 million committed, 15 portfolio companies and a restructured advisory platform in place, Nclude now has the capital and structure to back its next cohort of founders. The question for the coming years is whether more of its companies can replicate the regional expansion path that Nawy and Paymob have already begun to walk.

By Daniel Okafor