Hello guys,
Welcome to our weekly recap of the big news + funding in Ghana’s startup ecosystem. Here’s a look at the bold moves shaping the ecosystem this week.
- Mariseth Farms raises $1 million to scale operations to support smallholder farmers.
- OceansMall secures $150,000 from GBHub Africa to digitize Ghana’s seafood supply chain.
- Kodu Technology and Elucid selected for the MassChallenge Switzerland Accelerator.
- Vola Money launches remittance-as-a-service platform to help remittance providers streamline operations.
- IFC to invest $10 million in Oasis Africa Fund II.
- minoHealth’s Darlington Akogo named to Forbes Africa 30 Under 30.
- Ghana’s early-stage investor, GoodSoil VC, winds down.
Funding
Mariseth Farms raises $1 million to scale operations to support smallholder farmers.
Mariseth Farms has secured a $1 million working capital loan from a consortium of investors to scale its crop aggregation operations and enhance fair market access for smallholder farmers, particularly women. This follows a $560,000 facility raised last month from Sahel Capital’s Social Enterprise Fund for Agriculture in Africa (SEFAA). The latest round includes additional backing from the development finance institution, RDF Ghana and ABSA Bank Ghana.
The funding will support the company’s strategic growth initiatives to strengthen Mariseth Farms’ agricultural value chain. Key priorities include expanding in-house crop production, growing its network of smallholder supplier-aggregators, onboarding additional agriculture extension officers, and forging new offtaker partnerships to boost market access.
OceansMall secures $150,000 from GBHub Africa to digitize Ghana’s seafood supply chain.
OceansMall, the agritech startup revolutionizing seafood logistics, has secured $150,000 in convertible debt from GBHub Africa to expand its operations and digital platform, Pinwheel. The investment also includes technical assistance and market access support, enabling the company to scale its cold chain logistics and strengthen its reach across coastal fishing communities.
Founded in 2021 by Caroline Pomeyie, OceansMall connects fishermen directly with restaurants, hotels, and consumers via its proprietary digital platform, Pinwheel. The platform allows users to track inventory, coordinate logistics, and ensure timely, temperature-controlled seafood delivery.
Accelerator & Incubator
Kodu Technology and Elucid selected for the MassChallenge Switzerland Accelerator.
Two Ghana-based startups, Kodu Technology and Elucid, have been selected for the MassChallenge Switzerland 2025 Accelerator. The duo are among 103 early-stage ventures chosen from 34 countries, all recognized for their disruptive potential and impact-driven missions.
While Kodu Technology makes affordable and eco-friendly sanitary pads from banana and plantain waste, Elucid empowers companies to build resilient, sustainable supply chains by providing health coverage and services to cocoa and coffee farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Over the next four months, selected startups will receive mentorship from 15 corporate partners and 400+ experts, and compete for CHF 500K+ in equity-free cash and in-kind prizes.
Talent
minoHealth’s Darlington Akogo named to Forbes Africa 30 Under 30.
Darlington Akogo, the CEO of the AI-powered diagnostic healthtech startup,minoHealth has been named to the 2025 Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 class. Akogo is a global leader in Artificial Intelligence. Under his leadership, MinoHealth is developing AI systems for early disease detection, making quality care more accessible and affordable on the continent. He also leads KaraAgro AI, an AI-powered plant & pest disease detection and precision agriculture platform, Runmila AI Institute, an AI and data science training institute, and Gudra AI Studio, an organisation exploring the application of AI and exponential technologies in sectors such as transportation, sanitation and energy.
Product launch
Vola Money launches remittance-as-a-service platform to help remittance providers streamline operations.
Vola Money has launched its full-service Remittance-as-a-Service platform, enabling businesses to enter or scale in the international remittance market easily. The platform offers end-to-end infrastructure—including licensing, compliance tools, payment processing, and global payout capabilities to over 90 countries—allowing companies to operate compliant remittance services in the U.S. and Europe.
Led by Robert Lamptey, the company aims to simplify the complexities of cross-border payments and compliance for international money transfer organizations.
Venture Capital
IFC to invest $10 million in Oasis Africa Fund II.
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is looking to make an equity investment of up to $10 million in Oasis Africa Fund II (OAF Fund II), the West Africa-focused private equity fund targeting scalable small and medium-sized enterprises. The fund has a target size of $70 million, although it can extend to $100 million.
The fund announced its first close of $33.3 million last year with capital commitment from local investors such as the Development Bank Ghana and Venture Capital Trust Fund. The fund is expected to invest between $1 million to $10 million in 16 companies, providing a mix of convertible debt, mezzanine, and equity instruments across sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, food services, housing and hospitality, private education and tech-enabled businesses. While the fund’s primary focus will be on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, it will also consider opportunistic investments in Senegal and Liberia.
Ghana’s early-stage investor, GoodSoil VC, winds down.
Last week, the co-founder and managing partner of GOODsoil VC, Charmaine Hayden, announced that the fund will not be raising a follow-on vehicle after fully deploying its flagship fund. While no official reasons were provided for the decision, the move marks the end of one of the few venture firms in Ghana. In a 2020 interview, Hayden shared plans to raise a $67.5 million fund, stating that confirmation was expected shortly. However, no official announcement has been made since, suggesting the fund may not have been successfully closed.
According to PitchBook, GOODsoil has made 11 known investments, backing high-profile companies like Zeepay, the Ghanaian remittance fintech, and BetPawa, the sports betting platform. Despite this, the firm now joins a growing list of “zombie funds”—VCs that are no longer actively investing or able to raise new capital—amid a global venture capital slowdown.
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