Launch Africa's Exit Expert: African Startups have to IPO

Описание: Kartik Sharma is the Head of Exits at Launch Africa Ventures, one of Africa's leading Pan-African VC funds.

He's been with Launch Africa since day one, when they were a three-person team and has helped deploy $31M across 133 startups in 24 markets across Africa. Now, he's figuring out how to actually exit those positions.

In this episode, we explore the hardest part of African venture capital that nobody talks about: exits.

00:00 Intro
00:40 How Kartik Got Into African VC
03:35 Launch Africa's Pan-African Strategy Explained
03:53 Building a Fund From Day One: The Early Days
06:08 How His Role Evolved From Analyst to Head of Exits
06:46 Why Exits Are Harder Than Investing in African VC
08:52 Moving From Portfolio Management to Exit Strategy
10:01 The 4 Real Exit Pathways for African VCs
11:09 Building an Internal Investment Banking Function
12:02 The Challenge of Selling SAFEs
12:42 Creating the Launch Africa Safe Purchase Agreement
13:26 From 6 Months to 2 Weeks: Shortening Secondary Deal Timelines
14:17 How African VCs Actually Exit Their Positions
15:53 Why M&A Dominates African Tech Exits
17:10 Kartik's IPO Thesis: The Missing Piece Everyone's Ignoring
17:54 The Jumia Example: Why African IPOs Can Work
18:42 The Chicken-and-Egg Problem With African Stock Exchanges
20:46 Why VCs Are Creating False Pressure on Startups to Sell
21:49 Kartik's 2026 Goal: List an African Tech Company
23:01 Why Launch Africa Is a 5-Year Fund (Not 10 Years)
23:59 What Revenue Size Do You Need to IPO in Africa?
26:00 Why African Liquidity Exists (If You Look For It)
27:30 The Biggest Mistakes Founders Make That Kill Exits
28:04 Why Benchmarking Too High at Seed Stage Is Fatal
29:09 The Timeline Mismatch Problem Between Investors
30:16 3 Questions Founders Should Ask Before Accepting Money
32:06 How LPs Should Vet African VC Funds
34:39 How Launch Africa Built Deal Pipeline
38:48 Where to Find Kartik & Outro

Follow Kartik:
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/44pjwwW

Follow Launch Africa:
Website: https://bit.ly/44qSKV7