Venture Garden Group

Venture Garden Group (VGG) is a venture-building and investment group that works with governments, businesses, founders and investors to build and scale technology companies in emerging economies, with a stated focus on Africa. The group organizes its activity around three platforms: capital (equity and debt funding for high-impact projects), technology (investing in and incubating solutions from ideation to market and supporting expansion into new markets), and talent (training and sourcing professionals, and maintaining a network of technical experts, corporate advisors, executives and entrepreneurs).

Operationally, VGG describes itself as a venture builder whose portfolio companies provide revenue assurance, efficiency and transparency to public-sector segments including energy, aviation, agriculture and social intervention. Its ecosystem is packaged as service lines: Capital-as-a-Service, Talent-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service, alongside Vibranium Partners, which offers business advisory, technology platforms, legal and transactional services, HR, training and talent management, and growth support. VGG also operates Vibranium Valley, a 2,600-square-metre technology campus adjacent to the local airport in Ikeja, Lagos, used as a collaborative workspace for talent, founders and startups.

The group reports having built more than 20 companies, investing in a portfolio variously described on its site as 40+ and 60+ companies, presence in five countries, and more than 1,000 trained alumni referred to as "Spartans." Leadership listed includes Bunmi Akinyemiju (Partner & CEO), co-founders Kunmi Demuren and Demola Idowu, Ify Monyei (Chief of Staff), Cary Berman (CFO) and Dara Osibo (Principal Engagement Officer).

Founding story

Co-founders Bunmi Akinyemiju, Demola Idowu and Kunmi Demuren started their first business in Nigeria in 2011 and found that their main difficulty was collecting payment for their work rather than delivering the project itself. They built a payment solution to address this, which became the starting point for Venture Garden Group.

Business model

VGG combines investment with venture building: it deploys equity and debt capital into companies and projects, incubates and builds companies internally, and supplies shared services to portfolio and partner companies, including technology platforms and APIs, business advisory, legal and transactional support, HR and talent management, distribution and workspace at its Lagos campus. Its stated model treats capital, platform and talent as productized services (Capital-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, Talent-as-a-Service).

Traction

Self-reported figures include more than 20 companies built, a portfolio described as 40+ to 60+ investment companies, operations in five countries across an investment footprint spanning five continents including North America and Europe, and more than 1,000 trained "Spartan" alumni.