Interview with Madji Sock; Co-founder of Haske Ventures
Jen: How was “Haske Ventures” Created?
Madji: Haskè Ventures was started to address the youth unemployment challenge in West Africa. Madji Sock and Abdourahmane Diop, the co-founders, have served in strategy consulting for several years. We noticed that the strategies we helped develop for governments and donors were only a partial solution to the job creation conundrum in West Africa. We wanted to be more intentional in setting up companies that will contribute directly to job creation. As such, we focus on both tech and non-tech sectors such as the production of green construction materials, responsible food service, etc.
Jen: How are your investment funds catalytic in a way that is different from other funds?
Madji: 1. Investor-Operator: Diverging from conventional investors who primarily offer financial support, an investor-operator assumes an active role in the day-to-day operations and management of the invested enterprise. This dual function enables us to not only provide capital but also leverage our expertise, industry knowledge, and operational proficiency, directly contributing to a venture’s success and expansion. For instance, our venture support unit comprises dedicated individuals with extensive experience in growth marketing, data science, legal structuring, governance support, etc. Our financial support is seamlessly integrated with hands-on operational engagement to steer strategic decision-making and enhance overall business performance. 2.Stage Gates Approach to De-risking: By aggregating funding at the initial stages of company development (idea stage) and allocating resources based on clearly defined stage gates, we can swiftly identify and discard unviable ideas, reallocating resources to support more promising concepts. Despite planning to invest up to $700,000 per venture, the stage gate approach enables us to eliminate certain ventures early in the process before exhausting the full anticipated funding. Employing a methodical and structured approach to company design minimizes the likelihood of business failure, optimizing both returns and impact. 3. Community Engagement: As a studio, we proactively develop entrepreneurial solutions in collaboration with local communities, avoiding a passive stance and relying on chance for the emergence of suitable solutions in the market.
Jen: How do you describe the kind of non-financial returns the fund offers?
Madji: We identify, define, and validate business models for products and services for populations living on less than US$2/day, exemplified by ventures such as Sammanté providing affordable health coverage for informal sector workers. In addition, we foster locally-led approaches through partnerships with global actors such as Yolélé US, with whom we have jointly established Yolélé West Africa to promote agricultural processing capacities and value-added exports, starting with fonio (ancient grain), enhancing self-reliance and local production capacity. For each of the venture ideas we develop, we seek to integrate R&D and policy components by partnering with local universities to co-create products and services.
Jen: Can you describe how you use integrated capital to do your work?

Madji: Haskè Ventures is part of a group of companies. Through our consulting arm, we benefit from rigorous research and problem-solving capabilities, as well as access to policymakers. Through our ecosystem-building arm, Ignite.E, we are able to identify promising entrepreneurs and support them to refine an idea and access venture-building support. We have also mentioned our partnership with IDRC to advance the R&D needs of our ventures.
Jen: How do you address racial justice, income inequality, and/or gender justice through your products and services?
Madji: We apply a systemic approach by engaging beyond venture-building and funding, and by being very intentional on justice considerations we want to integrate in the ventures we build. We consider policy as an important lever for change, and aim to also build initiatives that support our fund activities. As an example, alongside building companies in the plastics recycling value chain, we established The Alliance for Advancing Recycling, Awareness and Livelihoods in Plastics (TAARAL), a multi-stakeholder alliance to address environmental and socio-economic issues, for the development of the circular economy of plastics in Senegal. TAARAL is (a) a voluntary agreement, including companies and private organizations, in collaboration with public and associative actors; and (b) an exchange platform that promotes the development of solutions and collaborative action. We believe that concerted policy-action is needed to advance the impact-focused ventures we create and fund. We are also in the process of setting up a studio dedicated to climate tech, Dorewa, in partnership with US-based Riffle Ventures. We are committed to building ventures that serve the underserved in Senegal, for example by launching a venture delivering health insurance vouchers to informal sector workers.
Jen: Can you share with us an example of an investment?
Madji: As examples, we have launched ventures that are dedicated to climate action such as COMPACT producing compressed earth-blocks to reduce the negative impact of cement on the environment; and Sammanté as described above. All our ventures aim to address a development issue. See attached presentations.
Jen: What do you tell people who think your fund is risky?
Madji: We would rather hope that you will contribute to the impact we seek to achieve, and to demonstrate new models of investment that are more tailored to the Francophone context, and will drive impact.
Investment Thesis/What is your rationale for your approach to investing?
Haskè Ventures is a venture studio, with a mission to build and co-create companies from ideation to Series A financing, in Francophone Africa, and focused on solving development challenges in a sustainable way. We (co)invest up to USD 700,000 (pre-seed and seed) per venture, through a combination of cash and hands-on venture-building services, including strategy, talent, and operational support. Our pipeline is generated through innovations and co-creation, as well as robust sector strategy studies. We are sector agnostic and invest in both tech and non-tech, with a current pipeline focused on health, logistics, agriculture, clean construction materials, etc.
We have developed an in-house formula that allows us to quickly move from idea to launch. Our formula enables us to be rigorous in our venture-building approach to avoid over- or under-investing in ideas. The first step of our method lasts approximately seven months, during which we move from challenge brief to discovery, validation, and MVP. At the end of this first step, the Studio’s Management team decides whether or not the MVP has sufficient traction to move to the second step of our process, which is the company’s official launch. The second step last approximately seven months, with a strong focus on setting up the operations of the venture as well as getting market traction. At the end of this step, the Studio’s Management team decides whether or not to move to the third step, focusing on scaling ventures, over approximately seven months. At the end of this third step, we expect ventures to be ready for series A funding. We plan to remain as a shareholder in the companies for about seven years before actively seeking an exit. Where exit options present themselves prior to the seven years, we will consider them.
We have opted for a single purpose studio model rather than a dual-entity model with an associate fund to avoid overcomplicating the legal structure:
• The Venture Building Window covers direct venture studio costs. The window is used to pay for team member salaries, administrative fees, overhead, external services and prototyping vouchers to research and launch ventures. We have also secured US$500,000 from Canadian International Development and Research Institute (IDRC) to fund research projects with local universities and research institutions, in support of our portfolio of companies.
• The Seed Funding Window covers the seed funding need of ventures launched from the Studio.
Geography: Francophone West Africa
Year Founded: 2021
# of Investments: 13
# of Investors: 10 (donors, funders, supporters, investors)
Funds Raised: 4,000,000 since inception
What’s on Madji’s Mind?
Book: Bouba et Zaza, my son’s coloring book which also has a storyline. Fun and relaxing family time, and I often find myself more engaged in the coloring and story than he is :).
Song: Anything Burna Boy
Podcast: The Diary of a CEO, especially episodes with CEOs; I find their journeys inspiring and their insights real