From Startup→to→Scaleup, Together
We call it a dazzle — African startups succeeding together.
What we facilitate
- Customer Acquisition
- Venture Funding
- Talent Discovery
- M&A
What is Dazzle Africa?
Dazzle Africa is Africa's startup-to-scaleup transaction engine.
We don't just connect startups to capital. We facilitate the deals that turn early-stage companies into scaled businesses: customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, venture funding, talent placement, and M&A.
Africa's startup ecosystem is thriving, but it's fragmented. Different borders, currencies, languages, cultures, and communities mean that deals, partnerships, and opportunities get lost between markets every day.
Dazzle Africa connects the continent's startups, investors, innovation hubs, governments, academia, and the global diaspora into a single transaction network, bridging the gaps so that what happens in Lagos can reach Lilongwe, and what starts in Cape Town can scale to Cairo.
The connective tissue for startup transactions across the continent.
Meet the Founding Curator
Phin Mpofu-Masamba II
Founding Curator
Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Phin relocated to the UK in 2000. Over 25 years of being immersed in global startup ecosystems, he never stopped looking back at the continent that shaped him, searching for the right way to contribute to its future.
Through helping scale Startup Grind to 620 chapters across 125 countries, Phin saw first-hand how different ecosystems operate. Regular trips to Silicon Valley and hearing from unicorn founders at the annual Startup Grind conference made one thing abundantly clear: the Silicon Valley unicorn model is not the right model for the African continent. If anything, it's mostly right only for Silicon Valley.
There was an opportunity to design, develop, and drive the adoption of a model that is uniquely African. That thinking became The African Zebra Thesis: Dazzle Them, a framework for why Africa's startups need a different playbook. (The name? A dazzle is what you call a herd of zebras.)
Dazzle Africa is the mission brought to life: to build the continent's startup-to-scaleup transaction engine, accelerated by the Dazzle. Not another accelerator. Not another pitch competition. A transaction engine built to help African startups become each other's first customers, first partners, and first proof points. An in-turn leads to the next customer, next partner, and next proof point. The kind of engine that drives Africa's startups from first customer to next exit.
In the wild, when a dazzle of zebras moves together, their stripes create an optical illusion known as motion dazzle, making it nearly impossible for predators to single out one animal from the group. The collective makes each individual stronger. And when the herd runs, it slows its pace so the youngest and weakest members can keep up. Nobody gets left behind.
That's the model.
He refers to himself as a curator, not a founder, because Dazzle Africa isn't about one person's vision. It's about orchestrating what already exists, the talent, the hustle, the networks, the community, into something that compounds. In a dazzle, there is no single leader. Leadership is distributed. Whichever zebra has the greatest need moves first, and the rest follow. The dazzle goes where the need is.
That's the engine.
Trade, Not Aid. Dazzle, Not Alone.
A dazzle is what you call a group of zebras. They survive by running together — protecting each other, moving as one. That's the model.
African startups don't need more programmes, grants, or pitch competitions. They need customers. They need each other.
Revenue validates. Revenue compounds. Revenue negotiates better term sheets.
“A single zebra is a target. A dazzle is impossible to pin down.”
— Phin Mpofu-Masamba II, Founding Curator
Trade Before Funding
A mobility startup in Lagos needs KYC? A fintech in the dazzle already built it.Dazzle Africa connects them. Revenue stays in the ecosystem. Both companies validate faster.
The Network Is the Market
500+ innovation hubs across 53 countries aren't just spaces — they're distribution. Cohort startups become each other's first customers, first revenue, first case studies.
Customers Before Cheques
When startups arrive at funding conversations with revenue and proof, they negotiate from strength. Dazzle Africa builds that foundation first.
Who's in the Dazzle
2,500+
Ventures
500+
Hubs
400+
Investors
100+
Government Agencies
Across 53 African countries