Fueling Scale With Soul.

Imago means transformation — the final form that emerges after a long, often unseen evolution.
The Imago Fund is TELEP Capital’s growth-stage vehicle designed for African women-led businesses that have already proven their model and are now ready to scale, without erasing their values, their communities, or themselves.

We invest where most others hesitate: between traction and true transformation.
We don’t just follow data. We follow conviction, context, and community trust.

Why TELEP’s Imago Fund?

Because African women are scaling ventures that change lives, heal ecosystems, and generate returns — but are rarely met with patient, aligned, or narrative-conscious capital at growth stage.

Traditional growth funds often demand shortcuts.
We offer continuity.
They seek hockey-stick growth.
We invest in rooted expansion.
They ask for exit-first thinking.
We ask, "Who stays when capital leaves?"

The Imago Fund was created to:

  • Bridge the gap between early traction and sustainable expansion

  • Challenge the myth that scale must mean dilution of values

  • Enable legacy-minded African founders to grow on their own terms

  • Build visibility and valuation for enterprises too often misread by mainstream capital

What We Fund.

We fund growth-stage businesses that are shaping the future of African economies, not just through scale, but through values, vision, and community continuity.

The Imago Fund backs enterprises that:

  • Have demonstrated product-market fit and a clear path to scale

  • Are led or co-led by African women, or center African women as core economic agents

  • Operate with deep local embeddedness, not just global ambition

  • Integrate social, cultural, or ecological impact as part of their core model — not as an afterthought

  • Are willing to grow without compromising their purpose, people, or pace

From regenerative agriculture to feminist fintech, dignified care economies to digital infrastructure, cultural industries to circular manufacturing — we fund what redefines how Africa grows.

We don't limit ourselves by sector.
We follow signals of transformation, and bet on the women leading them.

Our Instruments.

  • Mezzanine

    Structured deals for founders who want growth without early dilution

  • Revenue-based Finance

    For cash-flow generating businesses that want flexible repayments

  • Follow-on Capital

    To deepen investment into Catalyst Fund graduates or existing portfolio stars

  • Equity

    Patient, values-aligned capital with agreed-upon governance rights

  • Narrative Equity

    Strategic capital to support brand expansion, communications, and ecosystem visibility

Where We Work.

We invest across Sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on ventures that are:

  • Headquartered or significantly operating on the continent

  • Deeply anchored in local networks and knowledge

  • Committed to regional value creation, not just global exposure

  • Centering African women as leaders, workers, creators, and community builders

We prioritize underfunded geographies and sectors that traditional VC overlooks, because transformation often starts at the margins.

How It Works.

  • We prioritize organizations already engaged in the TELEP Network. Others may apply through aligned partners.

  • We co-create a capital plan that fits your actual context: amount, type, timing, and purpose — with learning loops and accountability by design.

  • Alongside funding, we offer strategic accompaniment, storytelling support, and optional business model adaptation coaching.

  • We plan for exit from the start — with community accountability, scenario forecasting, and pathways to other investors or revenue models.

All throughout, we embed monitoring as learning, co-reporting tools, and mutual reflection, not extractive metrics.

Why It’s Different.

Most growth funds ask: “What’s your valuation?”
We ask: “What’s your vision?”

What sets the Imago Fund apart:

💠 We don’t force Western metrics of scale. We co-create milestones that match local realities and community goals.
💠 We consider legacy at the start. Every investment begins with a conversation about how you want to exit — ethically, culturally, and collectively.
💠 We offer strategic narrative capital. We help you be seen, by your market, your investors, your ecosystem. Visibility is part of the value.
💠 We center relational trust. Our due diligence is grounded in proximity, not extraction. We listen to the ecosystem around you.
💠 We move with humility. We’re not here to teach you how to lead. We’re here to walk with you as you grow.

This isn’t just about capital. It’s about continuity.

Join Us.

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Join Us. *

Whether you’re:

  • a founder preparing to expand and searching for the right capital partner

  • a funder looking to co-invest in transformational African ventures

  • or a philanthropy ready to blend grantmaking with long-term equity plays

The Imago Fund is where legacy meets leverage.