Top 5 Travel Angel Investors in Africa in May 2025

Last updated: May 2025 A list of 5 angel investors that invest in Travel startups based in Africa. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Travel companies from Africa. We update this investor list every month.

Top 5 Travel Angel Investors in Africa in May 2025

Investor	Travel Africa investments
Federico Pirzio-Biroli	2
Helena Riese Harstad	1
Jim Villanueva	1
Darshan Chandaria	1
Axel Peyriere	1

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Investor list

Fede started out as an angel investor in 2010. His portfolio quickly grew, so he built a team around him and thus Playfair Capital was born. We have since gone on to become one of Europe’s most active and well-known early-stage VC funds. Before becoming a technology investor Fede worked for several NGOs in Africa, with a particular focus on aidtransparency. He recently renewed his focus on Africa by relocating to Kenya and becoming an angel investor in East Africa’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. He maintains an active role at Playfair and continues to lead our investment team.

Investment focus

Software, Venture Capital, Non Profit
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
United Kingdom, Kenya, Sweden

Portfolio highlights

Bibblio — Conversion optimization, powered by AI. Increase user engagement, grow revenues and drive new audiences, for stronger site metrics and ROI.
Brewbot — Brewbot is a multidisciplinary team of designers and developers based in Belfast, N. Ireland. They come from different backgrounds and experiences — music, design, code, and fine art — but they all share a common passion for brewing.
Purple Elephant Ventures — We are Africa's first venture studio focusing on the travel & tourism sector. Our aim is to build businesses that will lead Africa's tourism industry to a greener future

Helena Riese Harstad is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Optimizer Foundation. She previously worked at SBAB Bank as a Project Specialist. Helena Riese attended Stockholm University.

Investment focus

Travel, Tourism, Venture Capital
Pre-Seed
Kenya

Portfolio highlights

Purple Elephant Ventures — We are Africa's first venture studio focusing on the travel & tourism sector. Our aim is to build businesses that will lead Africa's tourism industry to a greener future

Jim Villanueva - Investment Director, Managing Director, Global Partnerships Social Venture Fund @ Global Partnerships

Investment focus

Agriculture, Energy, Travel
Series A, Series B, Seed
Kenya, Uganda, Zambia

Portfolio highlights

Treasure8 — Through our commercial partnerships and USDA-patented dehydration technologies, Treasure8 transforms food streams and food waste into nutrient-dense elements that can be enhanced, shaped, shipped, and enjoyed almost anywhere and when needed most.
Good Nature Agro — Their priority is to generate lasting income with small-scale farmers. They build local community leaders into qualified Private Extension Agents (PEAs) who oversee and train farmers throughout the growing season. They support PEAs to provide frequent trainings and personalized recommendations on how their growers can make their field healthier andmore productive. PEAs promote improved farm practices and deliver a farmer-friendly loan of seeds and additional inputs. At harvest, Good Nature is a guaranteed market for the certified legume seed that their growers produce. Choosing to produce these high-value crops over traditional cash crops - maize and cotton - more than doubles their income.
Purple Elephant Ventures — We are Africa's first venture studio focusing on the travel & tourism sector. Our aim is to build businesses that will lead Africa's tourism industry to a greener future

Darshan Chandaria is the Group CEO and Director of Chandaria Industries. He previously worked at Pentland Brands Plc as a Graduate Trainee. Darshan Chandaria attended Harvard Business School.

Investment focus

Software, B2B, Marketplace
Seed, Pre-Seed
Kenya, United States

Portfolio highlights

Leta — Leta Technology is a software development company that creates supply chain and logistics software to enable the efficient and automated movement of goods.
Bamba — Today, organizations spend a lot of money on physical data gathering exercises using old-fashioned paper-based methods. These methods result in expensive, severely delayed and incomplete data . With Bamba, a client can launch a data collection exercise anywhere in the world simply from the comfort of their web browser and the client can ensureindividuals respond with complete answers by paying those individuals for that data with mobile airtime in 122 different countries thus far.
Cloud9 - Africa's Lifestyle Network — Cloud9xp.com is a online marketplace and booking service for leisure experiences.We believe that everyone deserves to have fun, feel good and be happy. We believe happiness starts with a drop, becomes a ripple and creates a wave. We believe happiness is amplified when shared.Put simply, Cloud9 is in the business of happiness and are passionateabout giving people more #HighOnLIfe moments.All of our products; across apparel, consumer electronics and lifestyle items are authentic, and we only work with the most upstanding, and energetic brands in the world to bring you the best possible products.

Startups - Mentoring - Advising - Emerging Markets. I am a enthusiastic entrepreneur and angel investor working with startups all around the world. Have worked / mentored / coached / partnered / invested in more than 200 startups around the world. Specially keen on online marketplaces and emerging and frontier markets.