at Google ScholarTitle data
Mkalama, Benedict Wandera ; Ouma, Stefan:
Making sense of funding inequalities in the venture capital space : a state-of-the-art paper with views from Africa.
In: Socio-Economic Review.
(28 January 2025)
.
- pp. 1-25.
ISSN 1475-147X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwaf007
Abstract in another language
Between 2015 and 2022, venture capital (VC) investments in Africa have increased
significantly. However, a closer look reveals that these investments have been dis-
tributed unevenly in socio-spatial terms. In this article, we seek to demonstrate that
the existing literature on the VC-inequality nexus in North America can help make
sense of the interrelationship between VC allocation decision-making and socially
differentiated access to VC in Africa. By summarizing existing findings on the VC
allocation-inequality nexus and combining insights from different disciplines, we
provide conceptual clarity through a systematic inventory of the existing literature.
Secondly, by developing a view from Africa, we show how an engagement with VC
from ‘the margins’ complicates existing narratives on investee discrimination
mainly generated in a North American context. Finally, we filter our findings
through VC experiences of Asian economies, where VC funding has often evaded
the classic ‘race’ problem due to its domestic nature, even though these experien-
ces are far from equal affairs.