Investors / DFS Lab
DFS Lab
Venture capital
DFS Lab is a venture capital firm that invests at the intersection of AI and industrialization in Africa. It began as a research effort on digital financial services in frontier markets and now backs founders building critical systems, with a small team of former researchers, operators, and builders.
Invests inFintechE-commerce & Marketplaces
In its own wordsaifintechpaymentsenterprise softwareenergylogistics
Your fit with DFS Lab
Four questions about your startup
See how your round matches what it backs, point by point.
Or find every investor that fitsDFS Lab lists 39 checked portfolio companies on its own site and is named in 3 funding rounds. Its most frequent entry is Seed, 67% of the companies with a known first round. Its largest themes are Fintech (36%), E-commerce & Marketplaces (22%) and AI & Machine Learning (9%). It invests most often alongside LoftyInc Capital, Resilience17 and Tofino Capital.
Counts come from funding rounds that name DFS Lab, complete from mid-2025: earlier rounds appear only when they were reported later. Round amounts and full round histories are on Fundup AI.
Round figures show recent activity, not DFS Lab's whole history. Rounds on record name 3 companies; its own site lists 39. Funding rounds are complete from mid-2025, so counts and the yearly trend undercount a firm that invested before then. The portfolio, themes and places come from its own site and are not affected.
Entry stage
share of companies by the stage of its first roundShow as a table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Pre-seed | 33% |
| Seed | 67% |
| Series A | 0% |
| Series B | 0% |
| Growth | 0% |
Activity by year
rounds it joined, last 10 yearsShow as a table
| Total | Rounds it led | |
|---|---|---|
| '17 | 0 | 0 |
| '18 | 0 | 0 |
| '19 | 0 | 0 |
| '20 | 0 | 0 |
| '21 | 0 | 0 |
| '22 | 0 | 0 |
| '23 | 0 | 0 |
| '24 | 0 | 0 |
| '25 | 0 | 0 |
| '26 | 3 | 0 |
Investor profile
percentile among all firmsShow as a table
| Measure | Percentile of all firms | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio size | 77th | 39 companies |
| Recent activity | 76th | 3 rounds in 12 months |
| Early stage | 100th | 100% of entries at pre-seed or seed |
| Evidence | 64th | 5% of companies confirmed by a round |
| Sector focus | 66th | 36% in its largest sector |
| Reach | 91th | 8 countries |
Investment themes
share of its checked companiesThis firmAll checked companies
Show as a table
| This firm | All checked companies | |
|---|---|---|
| Fintech | 36% | 12% |
| E-commerce & Marketplaces | 22% | 6% |
| AI & Machine Learning | 9% | 18% |
| Food & Agriculture | 7% | 3% |
| Enterprise Software | 4% | 8% |
| Cybersecurity | 3% | 4% |
| Crypto & Web3 | 3% | 1% |
| Legal & Compliance | 3% | 2% |
Invests most often with
firms sharing its portfolio companiesShow as a table
| Share | |
|---|---|
| LoftyInc Capital | 6 |
| Resilience17 | 4 |
| Tofino Capital | 4 |
| Ventures Platform | 4 |
| Y Combinator | 4 |
| DCG | 3 |
| Madica | 3 |
| Oui Capital | 3 |
Its portfolio companies
where they are based, and what their own sites showSite status
- Site answers39100%
- No longer answers00%
- Points to another company00%
- Parked or sold domain00%
A site that stops answering three checks in a row is counted as no longer answering; that is not proof of closure. A site that points to another company is often an acquisition.
Co-investor network
who it backs companies with, and who they back togetherAll co-investors or Compare portfolios with LoftyInc Capital
Compare DFS Lab head to head
portfolio size, rounds, entry stages, themes and the companies both backThree or more firms at once: portfolio overlap.
Recent portfolio activity
when companies last raised with DFS Lab| Date | Company | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Sept 2026 | Pre-Seed | |
| 1 Sept 2026 | Seed | |
| 19 May 2026 | Seed |
Round details for DFS Lab
Amounts, full round histories and every co-investor in DFS Lab's rounds are on Fundup AI. VCinfo covers investors and their portfolios.
Portfolio
39 companies checked against their own sites| Company | What it does | Themes | First round with it | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The company delivers meals in minutes | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| Aeon provides cybersecurity services and products to defend digital assets across multiple attack surfaces | Cybersecurity | Sept 2026Pre-Seed | Funding round | |
| Airdial provides a professional-grade phone system for modern teams with features like AI voice agents, parallel dialer, messaging, and analytics. | AI & Machine LearningEnterprise Software | Portfolio page | ||
| Akiba provides a risk decisioning engine and API products for customer verification, risk analysis, and fraud intelligence to help businesses make decisions and streamline their onboarding process. | FintechSpace & Defense | Portfolio page | ||
| Ando provides the infrastructure that enables food and delivery businesses to scale reliably across cities. | Food & AgricultureE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| Portfolio page | ||||
| Catlog helps businesses manage their operations online, including creating online stores, tracking orders and customers, and accepting payments. | E-commerce & MarketplacesFintech | Portfolio page | ||
| Chargel provides a logistics platform for sourcing capacity, managing operations, tracking deliveries, and securing payments across Africa. | Legal & ComplianceE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| Checker provides infrastructure for digital asset payments and trading | FintechCrypto & Web3 | May 2026Seed | Page + round | |
| ChipMango provides training and services in microchip design, offering courses, certificates, and tools for individuals, universities, and businesses. | EducationHealthcare & Biotech | Sept 2026Seed | Page + round | |
| Cutstruct simplifies construction procurement by managing material needs and providing access to construction materials. | Real Estate & Construction | Portfolio page | ||
| Orda provides a mobile ordering app for businesses that use Square payments | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| Rima Ai assists tax resolution firms with case preparation using AI | FintechLegal & Compliance | Portfolio page | ||
| The company delivers gas and water products | E-commerce & MarketplacesFood & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| Hashrails provides a platform for cross-border commerce infrastructure, including transaction controls, compliance, deal visibility, and payments | FintechE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| Hulugram provides a messaging app with additional features such as shopping, payments, and digital services | Media & EntertainmentE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| Hustle provides a platform for live entertainment, including ticketing and event management services. | Enterprise SoftwareEnterprise Software | Portfolio page | ||
| Logistify is a managed AI service for supply chain and finance teams that automates tasks such as entering customer orders into ERP systems and matching customer payments to open invoices. | AI & Machine LearningFintech | Portfolio page | ||
| Luo Pay provides a platform for international payments from emerging markets | Fintech | Portfolio page | ||
| Maad provides a logistics platform for brands across Africa | AI & Machine LearningE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page |
About this data
site last read 5 Nov 2026- Site
- dfs.vc
- Last read
- 5 Nov 2026
- Watching since
- 5 Nov 2026
- Rounds since
- 19 May 2026
- Companies checked
- 39
Rates come from what VCinfo has observed since observation_start. Firms tend to remove companies that closed, so early rates understate reality. A company leaving a portfolio page does not mean it closed or exited. An unreachable site means our checks failed, nothing more.
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