About Lateral Frontiers
Lateral Frontiers is a venture capital firm founded in 2016. It is primarily based out of New York City, United States. As of Oct 2024, Lateral Frontiers has invested in 28 companies. It primarily invests in Seed round in Nigeria based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to FinTech and High Tech. Most recently it participated in the $***** Seed round of Octavia Carbon Overall, Lateral Frontiers portfolio has seen 1 IPO and 2 acquisitions, namely Mono, Tivic Health and Lynk. A lot of funds co-invest with Lateral Frontiers, with names like Golden Palm Investments sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Lateral Frontiers has team of 3 people including 1 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed & Series A
Portfolio IPOs
Lateral Frontiers' List of Top Investments
Lateral Frontiers has a portfolio of 28 companies. Their most notable investments are in Tivic Health and Vibra.Their portfolio spans across United States, Nigeria, Kenya and 8 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, FinTech, High Tech and 17 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A stages. Here is the list of top investments by Lateral Frontiers:1. Mono
Open banking APIs for businesses. It enables businesses to access the customer's financial account for financial data, identity data, transaction history, balances, and more. It also initiates direct debits from the customer's account. It facilitates token-based authentication for transactions.
Key facts about Mono
- Founded Year: 2020
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Last Known Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $17.6M
- Employee Count: 71 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Tiger Global Management, Acuity Ventures and 17 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Oct 11, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
2. SeamlessHR
Cloud-based suite solutions for HR management. It offers tools for managing leave, attendance, recruitment, performance, benefits, payroll and more. It also offers tools for monitoring employee time, assess earned wages, loans to employee and more.
Key facts about SeamlessHR
Provider of an online platform for buying and financing used cars. The platform offers listings of used vehicles with options for loan applications. It also provides resources such as a blog, FAQs, and information about terms of service. The company aims to facilitate automotive commerce through its online marketplace.
Key facts about Autocheck Africa
- Founded Year: 2011
- Location: Lagos (Nigeria)
- Stage: Seed
- Total Funding till date: $16.9M
- Employee Count: 369 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Lateral Frontiers, Musha Ventures and 15 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, Oct 26, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
4. Carry1st
Mobile game publisher and developer. It has also developed 'Carry1st Trivia', which is a learn & earn app. The users have to answer multiple-choice questions to win the reward. The app is available on the Android platform.
Key facts about Carry1st
- Founded Year: 2018
- Location: Cape Town (South Africa)
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $65.5M
- Employee Count: 115 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Summit Partners, Mastercard and 29 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Oct 23, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
5. Zone
Network of regulated blockchain infrastructure for processing digital payment transactions. The network facilitates real-time processing and settlement of digital payments. It enables financial institutions to connect directly with each other. The network offers decentralized payment gateway for point-of-sale transactions. It also provides decentralized switching for automated teller machine cash withdrawals.
Key facts about Zone
- Founded Year: 2008
- Location: Lagos (Nigeria)
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $23.8M
- Employee Count: 243 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Lateral Frontiers, Flourish and 12 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Mar 18, 2024, $*****
Lateral Frontiers' Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Lateral Frontiers has invested in 28 companies over the last 9 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 5 years. Its most recent first time investment was in Octavia Carbon and most recent follow-on round was in Carry1st.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2024 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2023 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2022 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
2021 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
2020 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
2019 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
2018 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
2017 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Lateral Frontiers' Investments by Stage
Lateral Frontiers has made 14 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $4M and 3 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $10M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 14 |
Series A | 3 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Lateral Frontiers' Investments by Sector
Lateral Frontiers has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the FinTech, Enterprise Applications, Consumer, Blockchain - Industry Applications and Retail. Notably, it has invested in 25 Tech companies, 22 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 13 Software companies and at least 10 companies focusing on Consumer (B2C).Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
FinTech | 8 |
Enterprise Applications | 6 |
Consumer | 5 |
Blockchain - Industry Applications | 4 |
Retail | 3 |
Others | 24 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Lateral Frontiers' Investments by Geography
Lateral Frontiers has made most investments in Nigeria (6), followed by Kenya where it has made 4 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Nigeria | 6 |
Kenya | 4 |
United States | 4 |
Cameroon | 1 |
South Africa | 1 |
Others | 2 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Lateral Frontiers' recent investments
Lateral Frontiers has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by Lateral Frontiers:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct 16, 2024 | Kenya | Seed | 3710 | [+4] | |
Sep 05, 2024 | Tunisia | Series A | 7641 | [+6] | |
Jan 17, 2023 | South Africa | Series A | 9855 | [+5] | |
Jan 13, 2022 | Kenya | Seed | 8302 | [+4] | |
Jan 13, 2022 | Kenya | Conventional Debt | 3706 | [+4] |
IPOs and Publicly Listed companies in Lateral Frontiers' Portfolio
1 of Lateral Frontiers' portfolio company became public - Tivic Health. It got listed on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ), in Nov 2021 at marketcap of $46.3MHere are Lateral Frontiers' portfolio companies that went public:
Company | IPO Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nov 11, 2021 | Aug 18, 2019 | Seed | 5745 |
Acquired companies in Lateral Frontiers' Portfolio
2 companies from Lateral Frontiers' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Mono in Jan 2026 by Flutterwave for $*****.Here are Lateral Frontiers' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan 05, 2026 | Sep 21, 2020 | Seed | 1911 | |
Apr 28, 2022 | Jul 12, 2019 | Seed | 1724 |
Team profile of Lateral Frontiers
Lateral Frontiers has a team of 3 members located in Kenya. Lateral Frontiers' team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Co-investors of Lateral Frontiers
Over the past 9 years, 174 investors have co-invested in Lateral Frontiers's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Lateral Frontiers: Tofino Capital, Ventures Platform and 25 others have invested in rounds before Lateral Frontiers. There is 1 company where Tofino Capital has invested before Lateral Frontiers and 1 company where Ventures Platform has invested before Lateral Frontiers.
- Top Co-investors of Lateral Frontiers: 73 investors entered a company along with Lateral Frontiers. These include investors like Golden Palm Investments (2 companies).
- Invested after Lateral Frontiers: A total of 74 investors have invested in Lateral Frontiers's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include SBI Investment (2 companies), TLcom (2 companies) and Lateral Capital (2 companies).
Recent News related to Lateral Frontiers
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Kenya’s Octavia Gets $3.9m Seed To Remove Carbon From AirTechCrunch+•Oct 16, 2024•Octavia Carbon, Lateral Frontiers, E4EAfrica, Catalyst Fund and 3 others
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Kenya’s Octavia Carbon is on a mission to save the earth with $5 million in seed funding.Techpoint.Africa•Oct 16, 2024•Octavia Carbon, Lateral Frontiers, E4EAfrica, Catalyst Fund and 3 others
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Tunisiaʼs Wattnow secures undisclosed funding to support global expansionTechpoint.Africa•Sep 06, 2024•Wattnow, Lateral Frontiers, 216 Capital, Outlierz Ventures and 3 others
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Climate Tech Startup Wattnow Raises Undisclosed Funding Roundtechbuild.africa•Sep 06, 2024•Wattnow, Lateral Frontiers, 216 Capital, Outlierz Ventures and 1 other
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Seedstars Capital and Foundation Botnar partner to improve the well-being of people under 30 in Ghana, Tanzania, EgyptTechpoint.Africa•Jun 19, 2023•Seedstars, Fondation Botnar, Global Ventures, Lateral Frontiers
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Kenyan BNPL startup Lipa Later eyes more African markets after raising $12 millionTechCrunch+•Jan 13, 2022•Lipa Later, Lateral Frontiers, GreenHouse Capital, Sayani Investments and 11 others
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African Blockchain Lab, a blockchain technology firm, has raised $6 million in Series Pre-A funding.Techgist Africa•Dec 08, 2021•CRE Venture Capital, Musha Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, HashKey and 16 others
