Clarus believes East African startups need a different kind of support

Venture growth and innovation firm, Clarus is partnering with Norrsken East Africa to solve this problem with the first cohort of a GTM accelerator program called the Scale Velocity Lab.

African startups raised $887 million across 84 deals between January and April 2026, per TC Insights, up from $803 million in the same window of 2025, but across fewer than half as many deals. Last year recorded 173.

Debt led the latest rounds, with equity coming a close second. In what seems like a continuation of 2025, investors are writing fewer cheques, and only to companies with strong traction, retention, and solid unit economics.

For early-stage founders, that has shifted the definition of growth-stage readiness.

Unfortunately, not enough resources provide hands-on support for startups to gain the traction needed for growth and further scaling. 

This challenge is tied to the unglamorous work of building repeatable commercial systems, and providing startups with the tools to do that work and build the right systems is the solution.

Venture growth and innovation firm, Clarus is partnering with Norrsken East Africa to solve this problem with the first cohort of a GTM accelerator program called the Scale Velocity Lab.

Victor Ekwealor, founder of Clarus, maintains that “startups don’t fail or struggle because of a lack of marketing. They struggle because of a lack of repeatable processes.”

What is actually different about Scale Velocity Lab?

Clarus is organising Scale Velocity Lab for startups in East Africa

Scale Velocity Lab is built around GTM and co-building with traction-stage startups. 

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