Financing Your
Venture
Africa tech is on the rise and an increasing number of funds are dedicated to financing ventures across Africa. However, practices have proved to be very different between investors, lacking transparency, creating frustrations, and a waste of time. As a collective, we are committed to creating common practices and tools.
Due Diligence Checklist
Standardized South African Term Sheets
Term Sheet
The Term Sheet outlines the key investment terms, linking directly to provisions across the Memorandum of Incorporation, Shareholders’ Agreement and the Subscription Agreement. It should be prioritised as the first document to settle which will guide the drafting of the MOI and SHA.
In partnership with
SAFE AND ESOP GUIDANCE NOTES
Access the updated Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) notes as well as a step-by-step Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOP) guide that describes the high-level steps a founder would need to take to set up an ESOP and where they might need external legal or accounting assistance.
The Post-Money SAFE notes add to the Pre-Money SAFEs library, which has been around for about three years.
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As the Y Combinator SAFE template gains traction in the African market, many founders and investors find themselves spending unnecessary time translating the US terminology into a local context.
This is part 1 in a series of African SAFE templates that suggests a South African version, with versions for other African countries to follow soon.
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In partnership with
Adding on to the arsenal of useful resources, here’s an open-source spreadsheet you can use to build out your Capitalization Table with Post-money SAFE instruments to simulate the dilution effect of future funding rounds.
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You may download this and customize it as you see fit and in a way to suit you or your business.
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A special thanks to members of the collective who committed themselves to creating these invaluable resources.
In partnership with
Contribution to the Capitalization Table Template
Contribution with the Post Money SAFEs
African tech hubs have been growing, but there is little transparency on what incubators and accelerators really offer, and what are their specifications and main assets are. The list below is not comprehensive, but we believe that through collaborative efforts, it can be grown and transformed into something incredibly useful.
Here’s the most important shift you need to make right now: ChatGPT isn’t a search engine – it’s a reasoning engine you need to guide precisely. So let’s dig into a precise recipe of engineering prompts that works every time, rather than relying on luck and hoping your dish will come out just how you like it (sorry grandma, I need precise instructions!).
About The Governance Toolkit
This document is aimed at establishing best practices for venture-backed companies and is useful for:
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Startup Founders building scalable and valuable businesses and seeking best practices to implement and adopt.
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Investors seeking to understand, adopt and implement best practices for their portfolio companies and in their roles as Directors for venture-backed startups
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Other Stakeholders seeking to understand, adopt and implement best practices for the governance of venture-backed startups
Endorsements of DCA Governance Toolkit 2026 Edition
We have crafted the following toolkit, along with specific fund-related objectives, aimed at driving meaningful change. Your endorsement of this initiative would be invaluable in advancing our shared commitment to empowering female entrepreneurs. We would be honored to have your esteemed endorsement for this endeavor. Your support will play a pivotal role in creating an ecosystem that truly champions diversity and unlocks the full potential of African innovation.
If you are an Africa-focused fund manager or ESO, we invite you to fill in this form and click on the call to action to endorse the governance toolkit: