Top 15 Biotechnology Startup Investors in South Africa in May 2025
A list of 15 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Biotechnology startups based in South africa. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Biotechnology companies from South africa. We update this investor list every month.Top 15 Biotechnology Startup Investors in South Africa in May 2025
Investor | Biotechnology South Africa investments |
---|---|
Futuregrowth Asset Management | 2 |
Cult Food Science | 2 |
Twynam Agricultural Group | 1 |
E4EAfrica | 1 |
Sustainable Food Ventures | 1 |
University Technology Fund | 1 |
Unruly Capital | 1 |
Kale United | 1 |
Anonymous Trust | 1 |
Oak Drive ventures | 1 |
HAVAÍC | 1 |
Alethea Capital Management | 1 |
University of Cape Town | 1 |
Ministry of programming | 1 |
Launch Africa | 1 |
Futuregrowth manages the full range of fixed interest and developmental impact funds on behalf of our clients. We are committed to managing and investing our clients' funds in a responsible manner.
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Investment focus
- Software, Logistics, Medical Device
- Seed, Series B, Funding Round
- South Africa, France, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Tripplo — Tripplo is a platform to automate and optimise operations for transporters, cargo owners and cargo brokers.
- Pineapple — In short, Pineapple see the traditional insurance model, user journey and products as lacking and set out to remedy these by doing the following: 1) Changing the business model to align incentives, show people how premiums are used and award members leftover premium back 2) Making insuring as easy as snapping a picture where AI does the rest andcover is issued in under 60 seconds 3) Allowing per-item insurance and new product innovation to address cover not currently offered or accessible to manyPineapple launched in South Africa in 2018 with their "My Stuff" per-item insurance and have since launched their auto offering "My Ride". They have also partnered with Travelers in the US and have white-labeled their platform in the US.
- Sourcefin — Explore Sourcefin's purchase order funding and invoice discounting solutions. Achieve financial stability with Sourcefin's expert services.
CULT Food Science is an investment company focused on supporting and advancing the technology behind the future of food.
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Investment focus
- Food and Beverage, Biotechnology, Food Processing
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Funding Round
- United States, South Africa, Canada
Portfolio highlights
- Novel Farms — Novel Farms uses microbial fermentation to develop cruelty-free, inexpensive and tunable bioscaffolds for the production of cell-based meat products. Novel Farms mission is to craft the taste and texture of the gourmet meats and transform cell-based meat consumption into a sought-after culinary experience for the next generation of consciouseaters.
- Minus — A sustainable coffee alternative, combining the taste, look, and smell of coffee with a smaller footprint to ensure a brighter future for coffee and the planet.
- Unicorn Biotechnologies — Unicorn Biotechnologies is developing a fully automated manufacturing platform to enable cellular agriculture producers to seamlessly scale products from the lab bench to supermarket shelves. Our full stack platform combines hardware, software and analytics to completely automate cellular agriculture manufacturing, reducing costs and increasingproduct quality. By providing a clear path to scale cellular agriculture from grams to tons, we will improve human and planetary health and drive the transition to animal free agriculture.
Twynam Group is a leading Australian Funds Manager investing in early-stage climate tech. We also operate an agricultural and property portfolio.
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Investment focus
- Biotechnology, Agriculture, Seafood
- Series A, Seed, Pre-Seed
- United States, Australia, India
Portfolio highlights
- Alt Mobility — ALT Mobility is a full-stack EV leasing platform offering mobility as a service (MaaS) for commercial vehicle users.
- Smart Paddock — Smart Paddock is an Australian-based company developing smart ear tags for the livestock industry that provide real-time information to producers about the health status, behaviour, and accurate geo-location of all the animals in their herd. Utilizing IoT data straight from the paddock, the system will analyze the large amounts of informationgathered and give feedback to the producer on three key factors: animal health and well-being, pedigree management, and pasture land utilization. To gather the data, Smart Paddock has created the Bluebell tag which attaches securely onto the ear of each animal and monitors the temperature, mobility, and geo-location, which the producer can easily access from a web dashboard or mobile phone application.
- Ocean Rainforest — Ocean Rainforest offer a collection of premium fully-traceable seaweed products, mostly for food and cosmetic producers.
E4E (“Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs”) specializes in supporting early stage ventures in South Africa from very early stage (pre-series A) to scale up.E4E focus on smart entrepreneurs and business ideas that are great businesses and make a significant contribution to a better (South) Africa.
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Investment focus
- Logistics, Internet, Supply Chain Management
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- South Africa, France, The Netherlands
Portfolio highlights
- Hohm Energy — We make the process of going solar simple. Generate your free, custom solar proposal and get matched with an accredited solar provider in under 5 mins.
- Happy Pay — Happy Pay is a credit scoring system developing company. The company integrates an autonomous artificial intelligence technology system with the merchant's platform to increase their average basket size and customer conversion metrics, providing users with buy now, and pay later services.
- Conservio — Discover and Book South Africa's best nature accommodations with Conservio. Book vetted accommodations, easy and safe to book online.
SFV backs globally early-stage founders building leading Future of Food companies that are: #Cell-based #Plant-based #Recombinant
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Investment focus
- Food and Beverage, Biotechnology, Food Processing
- Pre-Seed, Seed, Angel
- United States, India, Germany
Portfolio highlights
- Another Food — Another Food is a plant cell culture startup which develops sustainable coffee from plant cells. A nature-identical coffee, healthier for consumers and better for the planet.
- Peruvian Veef — Peruvian Veef is an offline and online store that offers real burgers, grilled seitan, crispy cravings, and vegan nugget products.
- Atlantic Fish Company — Atlantic Fish Co is a cultivated seafood company using cellular agriculture to bring the world sustainable delicious seafood.
The University Technology Fund specifically focusses on commercialising technology, intellectual property, and research - Visit Us!
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Investment focus
- Biotechnology, AgTech, Medical
- Seed, Grant, Funding Round
- South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- CubeSpace — Industry-leading modular attitude determination and control (ADCS) products and solutions. Laser-focused on our customers' success. Your global ADCS partner.
- BioCODE Technologies — Biocode is a medical technology company that was spun out from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
- MariHealth Solutions (RF) (PTY) LTD — MariHealth Solutions is a marine biotech startup from South Africa, operating in the aquaculture healthcare sector. Currently, more than half the seafood we consume comes from aquaculture, and it is predicted that by 2030, 60% of the growing demand for high protein content foods will be met by aquaculture. However, aquaculture is not immune tounsustainable practices and high costs. For example, animal feeds for farmed fish account for up to 60% of the total production costs in commercial farming, while intensive farming is the main driver of animal stress, with disease outbreaks being responsible for 30-80% of losses. To solve this, MariHealth Solutions is leveraging biotechnology by developing a diagnostic molecular screening tool for effectively and proactively monitoring the impact of farming operations on farmed fish and shellfish. This will ultimately enable vets, farmers, and fish feed companies in optimizing farming operations and nutrition to reduce animal stress and disease outbreaks. In the long-term, this seeks to ensure a more sustainable approach to farming seafood by enabling the reduction of production costs and mitigating feed waste.
Investing in the crazy before it becomes normal
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Investment focus
- Biotechnology, CleanTech, Manufacturing
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Funding Round
- United Kingdom, United States, Germany
Portfolio highlights
- Ephos — Designing and manufacturing glass-based integrated photonic circuits that power the most advanced classical and quantum devices
- AtmoCooling — AtmoCooling transforms coastal deserts into thriving hubs of agriculture, clean energy, and climate resilience. It was founded in 2022 and operates in the USA and UAE.
- Terran Robotics — Terran Robotics is a construction company that specializes in AI and robotics. The company's headquarters are in Bloomington, Indiana.
Kale United offers a portfolio of over 75+ plant-based game changers
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Investment focus
- Food and Beverage, Food Processing, Biotechnology
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Funding Round
- United Kingdom, Sweden, India
Portfolio highlights
- Opalia — Opalia is introducing a new era of dairy: functional, delicious, and sustainable dairy made from mammary cells.
- The Pack — Nutritionally complete vegan dog food. Grain-free & developed with food scientists & animal nutritionists, try our delicious vegan dog food now.
- Cultimate Foods — Cultimate Foods is a cellular agriculture company. It develops cultivated fat for hybrid alt-meat products. It's cultivated fat replicates the structure of animal fat tissue and it uses a "unique technological approach to 3D cultivation that creates the structure of their ingredient and reduces production costs."
Trust
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Investment focus
- Software, Computer, Market Research
- Pre-Seed, Series A, Seed
- United States, South Africa, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- The Index — The Index is a platform of cutting-edge technology used by clients in the fashion and retail industry to grow their companies and enhance their digital footprints
- De Novo Foodlabs — Producing non-animal dairy proteins using precision fermentation
- Smart Separations — Smart Separations is a limited company based in London UK that has patented an innovative microfiltration technology to produce ceramic filters with self-assembled controllable pores of uniform size in the range between <1 and 50µm. This tight pore size control and range availability will revolutionise the field of MF with a cost-effectiveproduct.It aims to be the world’s leader in MF and particle separations technology – filling the void gap that exists in the market nowadays.
Oak Drive ventures will provide management support to a growing stable of operating companies. It combines decades of operational and investment experience to create value across various industries.
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Investment focus
- CRM, Banking, FinTech
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- Philippines, France, South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- Hive Health — Hive Health is a digital platform that provides access to easy-to-use, affordable, and quality HMO plans for SMEs in the Philippines.
- Inseco — Sustainable insect protein producers, converting organic by-products into nutritious protein. This high in protein product is used in animal feed, pet food, crop production, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
- Netbank — Netbank provides various banking solutions like alternative lenders, payment solutions, neobanks, and wallets.
HAVAÍC is an investment and advisory firm that specialises in early-stage, high-growth African businesses with proven concepts and global prospects, offering investment opportunities to sophisticated investors and international venture capital companies with an interest in Africa. As a complementary offering, HAVAÍC provides corporate advisory andcapital raising services to emerging, internationally scalable businesses.
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Investment focus
- Software, Health Care, FinTech
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- South Africa, United States, Kenya
Portfolio highlights
- NjiaPay — Payments-as-a-Service platform that will streamline your operations and elevate your online payments across the African continent.
- Talk360 — Talk360 is an easy-to-use calling app that helps people make affordable international calls to any mobile and landline number. They believe that reliable communication and digital services must be affordable and accessible to everyone, regardless of someone's background. Especially people in emerging countries in Africa, who often need theseservices the most, do not always have the necessary banking possibilities. To bridge this distance, Talk360 will launch the world's first single checkout platform for Africa. This platform will combine all locally available payment methods and currencies across Africa, together with over 1.25 million cash points of sales, and will eventually be available to other companies as well. This means that 500 million Africans will be able to purchase digital services they never had access to before.
- Right Now Response — The future of repairs starts soon. Counting down to smarter tracking in 2025! There are perks to working 24/7, 365 days a year... Like launching the future of repairs ahead of schedule!
Alethea Capital Management is an SEC-registered investment advisor founded in March of 2011. As an investment management and research firm, the mission of Alethea is simple – to provide the highest level of service and guidance to our clients with honesty, integrity, and transparency. The firm’s services include fee-based asset management,research/advanced quantitative systematization, manager/strategy evaluation, and comprehensive planning. Alethea’s center of operations is in San Diego, CA.
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Investment focus
- Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical
- Series A, Series B, Series C
- United States, South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- 3X4Genetics — Scientifically-robust nutrigenomics (personalised nutrition guided by your own genetic stack). Practitioner education & genomic reporting
- Lipidio Pharmaceuticals — A Unique Approach to Treating Obesity Precision Targeting of the Skin Exploiting the skin as an endocrine organ Historically regarded as a protective barrier organ, the skin is now recognized as an active endocrine organ capable of synthesizing, and secreting diverse hormones and signaling
- SEngine Precision Medicine — The Search Engine For Identifying Personalized Cancer Treatments.
University of Cape Town is a public research university that has previously been ranked as the top university in Africa. Originally established as South African College in 1829, where it was a school for boys, the College developed until in 1918 it was awarded full University Status with the power to award degrees. It is notable for itsresearch, particularly in Math, Applied Sciences and Medicine, as well as its history with political activism, especially during apartheid, where the University was a bastion for liberal progressivism and anti-apartheid demonstrations.
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Investment focus
- AgTech, Aquaculture, Biotechnology
- Seed
- South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- MariHealth Solutions (RF) (PTY) LTD — MariHealth Solutions is a marine biotech startup from South Africa, operating in the aquaculture healthcare sector. Currently, more than half the seafood we consume comes from aquaculture, and it is predicted that by 2030, 60% of the growing demand for high protein content foods will be met by aquaculture. However, aquaculture is not immune tounsustainable practices and high costs. For example, animal feeds for farmed fish account for up to 60% of the total production costs in commercial farming, while intensive farming is the main driver of animal stress, with disease outbreaks being responsible for 30-80% of losses. To solve this, MariHealth Solutions is leveraging biotechnology by developing a diagnostic molecular screening tool for effectively and proactively monitoring the impact of farming operations on farmed fish and shellfish. This will ultimately enable vets, farmers, and fish feed companies in optimizing farming operations and nutrition to reduce animal stress and disease outbreaks. In the long-term, this seeks to ensure a more sustainable approach to farming seafood by enabling the reduction of production costs and mitigating feed waste.
Build and scale world-class digital products with Ministry of Programming. Expert software, strategic consulting, and design services to fuel your startup's growth.
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Investment focus
- Biotechnology
- Pre-Seed
- South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- BioCertica — BioCertica combines advanced genomics technology to interpret your DNA and provide recommendations to unlock a healthy lifestyle.
Launch Africa is a leading Pan-African VC fund solving the significant funding gap in the Seed and pre-Series A investment landscape in Africa
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, FinTech, Information Technology
- Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
- Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya
Portfolio highlights
- Affinity — Join over 60,000 who trust the Affinity mobile app to manage your personal banking needs and qualify for an Affinity Instant Loan
- ToumAI Analytics — ToumAI Analytics is a software development company providing voice analytics, real-time analytics, and reporting services.
- PBR Life Sciences — A cloud-based real-world, non-observational pharmacy sell-out data
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