Adeola Adedewe grew up in Africa. When he moved to the United States, he became credit invisible and his entire financial history, unreadable to the American system. He built Kredete to solve that problem. In 21 months, the platform grew from $500K in seed funding to $48M in annual recurring revenue, processing $500M in remittances for 700,000 monthly users.
On 31 March 2026, Zidicircle members heard that story from the fund that backed Kredete before the trajectory was visible. Zachariah George, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Launch Africa Ventures, presented the fund’s portfolio and structure. Fridah Ntarangwi-Kimathi, The Fund manager of Zidicircle, explained how cooperative members participated. Here is what what was covered.
The fund structure
LAV Fund, one of Zidicircl’s co-invetsment partner has made 133 investments across 22 African countries, deploying $36.3M. The fund’s historical mark-to-market return on invested capital has been 2.5× on Fund 2, attributed to the portfolio to date.
The fund cycle is nine years, shorter than the twelve to thirteen years typical in the industry, which affects the timeline for capital return to limited partners.
Equity stakes range from 5% to 15% per company, with cheque sizes between $250,000 and $1,000,000. Existing LPs have co-investment rights on late-stage rounds at discounted rates. Zachariah noted that this structure gives the fund flexibility in deal selection that DFI-backed funds, which operate under more constrained mandates, do not always have.
One portfolio company: Kredete
Zidicircle Invested in Kredete through LAV fund. Kredete turns remittance data into a credit history that global lenders can read. Adeola built it from the problem he lived. He raised $500K at founding and reached $48M in annual recurring revenue within 21 months. The company recently completed a Series A at a $100M valuation, led by AfricInvest and Partech.
The session used Kredete to illustrate what early-stage exposure in the LAV Fund portfolio looks like — a company solving a structural problem in diaspora financial services, at a point in its development where the LAV Fund could take a position before the trajectory was visible to larger investors.
How Zidicircle members participate
Zidicircle operates as a co-investment fund structure registered in the Netherlands. Members contribute from €1,000 per commitment. That capital is pooled with other members’ contributions into collective tickets of €100,000, which are then deployed through entities registered in Mauritius — the legal structure through which the cooperative co-invests alongside the LAV Fund.
This removes the $100,000 individual minimum that most direct fund participation requires from high-net-worth individuals. A diaspora professional contributing €1,000 participates in the same deal flow as an investor contributing at the fund’s standard threshold.
Zidicircle charges a €60 one-time joining fee. Investment commitments begin at €1,000 per round and are not continuous obligations — members contribute at their own pace and on a per-round basis. The Zidicircle currently has 790+ investor members across 28 countries.
To learn how investing through the Zidicircle member driven structure works and what membership involves, visit zidicircle.com/zidi-invest-2.
What the portfolio covers
The LAV Fund portfolio spans fintech, climate technology, logistics, agritech, and health across 22 African countries. Some of the portfolio companies referenced during the session include Kredete (Nigeria — credit access and fintech), Octavia Carbon (Kenya — Direct Air Capture climate technology), and PAPS (Senegal — pharmaceutical and last-mile logistics).
Zidicircle members who participate gain access to this deal flow without needing to source, evaluate, or manage individual positions. The Investment Committeewhich includes members with sector backgrounds in finance, law, health, and engineering reviews deal terms before Zidicircle deploys pooled capital.
The Investor Member Sessions(IMS)
The 31 March webinar was part of Zidicircle’s ongoing programme of Investor Member Sessions. The IMS is the format through which the cooperative explains its structures, presents portfolio progress, and introduces new investment opportunities to members and prospective members.
Express your interest on LAV Fund here https://forms.gle/
The next Investor Session is 28 April 2026. Register here.
To start learning how angel investing works explore the #ZidiLearn before the session at school.zidicircle.com.