Top 10 Community Startup Investors in South Africa
A list of 10 angel investors and VC funds that invest in Community startups based in South africa. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Community companies from South africa. We update this investor list every month.Top 10 Community Startup Investors in South Africa
Investor | Community South Africa investments |
---|---|
Vumela Fund | 1 |
Vinny Lingham | 1 |
Michael Leeman | 1 |
Knife Capital | 1 |
Yossi Hasson | 1 |
Tom Berckt | 1 |
Harambeans | 1 |
4DX Ventures | 1 |
TotalEnergies Ventures | 1 |
Savannah Fund | 1 |
Vumela was established in 2009 by FNB Business Banking and Edge Growth. The objective was to create an innovative model for the development of a sustainable and a financially and operationally independent investment business which invests in high growth small, medium and micro size enterprises with good economic and impact returns.Vumela wascapitalised in 2010. Within the first four years, we’d invested R90 million into eight high growth SMEs, and created a total of 400 jobs. They launched their second fund in 2015, after a further investment of R100 million from FirstRand and R127 million from the Jobs Fund. Within the first year of launching this second fund, we’ve committed R43 million to five investments that are expected to create over 1800 new jobs.The first fund of its kind in South Africa, Vumela’s main goals are to invest in and develop entrepreneurial companies in order to help alleviate poverty in South Africa by creating jobs, and to generate a return for its beneficiaries: the Shalamuka Foundation and the FirstRand Group.
Show more
Investment focus
- Education, Software, Primary Education
- Funding Round, Seed, Debt Financing
- South Africa, Brazil
Portfolio highlights
- Inoxico — Inoxico is a provider of business-to-business credit risk solutions. We combine quality data and cutting edge technology to deliver predictive analytics.
- Kombo King — Kombo King Ventless Fryer Tech removes the need for plumes of steam & the constant eye of an inconsistent employee to Revolutionize & solve the frying industry!
- Kusini Water — Kusini Water builds water treatment systems from nanotechnology and macadamia nut shells.
Vinny Lingham is Co-Founder & CEO at Civic. He was the founder and CEO of Gyft, a mobile gift card app that allows customers to buy, store, send and redeem gift cards conveniently from their mobile device.
He is also the founder of Yola.com, a web development and hosting company that enables users without prior programming knowledge to developwebsites.
Vinny is the recipient of numerous awards, including Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006) and was also a finalist for Men’s Health Best Man (2009) and ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). He also previously founded Clicks2Customers, which also won the Top Technology Company award in South Africa in 2006.
He has previously served on marketing advisory boards for Nasdaq listed Valueclick and Yahoo, was also selected as an Endeavor “High Impact Entrepreneur” in 2006. Vinny studied a B.Com (Information Systems) at the University of Cape Town.
Show more
Investment focus
- Blockchain, Internet, Cryptocurrency
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- United States, South Africa, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Glif — Interoperable tools for the Filecoin network
- Afterparty — Afterparty is a technology company behind the new Web3 platform enabling creators to directly monetize and manage NFT collector relationships
- Collectibles.com — Collectibles.com is a Web3 community and marketplace for collectors and the worldwide collectibles sector.
Michael is the San Diego based Senior VP Business Development for Cognician, a self coaching and behavior change platform based in San Francisco. He is also a shareholder and director.
Michael also has array of investments in and advisory roles with a number of other start ups, including Gyft, Yola, ChessCube and Skyrove.
Show more
Investment focus
- Apps, Publishing, Software
- Angel, Seed, Funding Round
- United States, South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- Personera — Personera is a technology company focused on the development of Facebook applications and personalized products. Personera's unique platform allows brands to offer their communities a variety of branded print products or digital downloads, easily ordered directly from the brand's Facebook fan page and fully personalized with their socialnetwork content. Personera's platform is white-labeled and completely customizable for any unique brand identity. Products include calendars, photobooks, cards, and posters, and are available in professional print versions or digital downloads. All of their products include shared content between the brand and the individual consumer, creating a one of a kind keepsake or merchandise piece for every customer. Implementing Personera on websites or Facebook fan pages (or both) is easy. All it requires is installation of an app by adding a new tab to a fan page or embedding a line of code onto a website. Personera handles payments, printing and delivery via their global network.Personera's business model works on a per-sale revenue share basis, so there are zero setup fees for clients. They have a global network of commercial print partners that manage physical production and delivery of the products, ensuring high quality, fast and reliable service worldwide. Personera makes it easy for brands to monetize their Facebook page while engaging their fans with personalized product offerings. The Personera personalized products platform has been used by a variety of brands including leading magazines, musicians, celebrities and consumer focused companies.
- Swiftly — Harness your public transit data with Swiftly's urban mobility solutions to make your city's mass transportation move more efficiently.
- Appstores.com — Appstores is making it easier for consumers to find apps by giving small and large niche publishers and API/platform companies the tools to showcase apps most relevant to their users.
/*! elementor - v3.9.1 - 14-12-2022 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading
Show more
Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Manufacturing
- Funding Round, Series A, Seed
- South Africa, United States, Sweden
Portfolio highlights
- Octiv — Octiv is a well-known platform for gym management software.
- Outsized — Independent talent for enterprise clients and consulting firms in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.
- Simera Sense — Simera Sense develops camera control electronics for optical payload and Cubesat imager solutions.
Yossi Hasson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Metaversal and a Venture Partner at 2048 Ventures. He is also a Non-Executive Director of WeThinkCode_. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director of Techstars. He attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of Pretoria/Universiteit van Pretoria.
Show more
Investment focus
- Financial Services, Blockchain, Payments
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- South Africa, United States, Ghana
Portfolio highlights
- Ozow — Easy, fast, safe online payments and bank API solutions for merchants and consumers across South Africa. Secure instant EFT directly from bank to bank.
- Howler — Howler, is the powerful event technology platform designed at the uppermost benchmarks of service and technology to help consumers and event organisers to make moments that matter.
- The Sun Exchange — The Sun Exchange is the peer-to-peer solar leasing marketplace. We leverage financial innovation and the power of the crowd to drive sustainable energy development and make the environmental, social and economic benefits of solar accessible and affordable for all. Through the Sun Exchange online platform, anyone, anywhere in the world, can buyremotely-located solar cells and then lease them to power businesses and organisations in sunny emerging markets. Solar cell owners earn income from the electricity that’s generated, while schools, businesses, clinics and other organisations gain access to affordable clean energy, reducing electricity costs and carbon emissions.
Tom is currently a commercial executive at Clicks2customers.com, a global Search Engine Marketing company. His background is in (bio-) engineering but he has been involved in online companies for the past 10 years. Besides working at Clicks2customers, Tom is a part time lecturer at TSIBA (http://www.tsiba.org.za/) a South AfricanNGO providing tertiary education to economically disadvantaged children. He is also an angel investor in a number is technology startups and is an active member of the Silicon Cape initiative (www.siliconcape.com)
Show more
Investment focus
- Apps, Events, Printing
- Angel
- South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- Personera — Personera is a technology company focused on the development of Facebook applications and personalized products. Personera's unique platform allows brands to offer their communities a variety of branded print products or digital downloads, easily ordered directly from the brand's Facebook fan page and fully personalized with their socialnetwork content. Personera's platform is white-labeled and completely customizable for any unique brand identity. Products include calendars, photobooks, cards, and posters, and are available in professional print versions or digital downloads. All of their products include shared content between the brand and the individual consumer, creating a one of a kind keepsake or merchandise piece for every customer. Implementing Personera on websites or Facebook fan pages (or both) is easy. All it requires is installation of an app by adding a new tab to a fan page or embedding a line of code onto a website. Personera handles payments, printing and delivery via their global network.Personera's business model works on a per-sale revenue share basis, so there are zero setup fees for clients. They have a global network of commercial print partners that manage physical production and delivery of the products, ensuring high quality, fast and reliable service worldwide. Personera makes it easy for brands to monetize their Facebook page while engaging their fans with personalized product offerings. The Personera personalized products platform has been used by a variety of brands including leading magazines, musicians, celebrities and consumer focused companies.
Harambeans are African innovators who have pledged to “work together as one” to build Africa’s future. Over the last decade, Harambeans has spawned a series of tech-enabled ventures such as Andela, Flutterwave, and Yoco, which have collectively generated over 3000 jobs, and raised over $700m from Google Ventures, CRE Ventures and Accel.
Show more
Investment focus
- Supply Chain Management, Transportation, Information Technology
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- Releaf — We are industrializing food processing in Africa. We've led 1000+ smallholder farmers to provide food factories with >7.5 million kilograms of quality crops.
- MarketForce — MarketForce connects Africa’s informal retail outlets and consumers directly to suppliers of consumer goods and financial services by digitizing orders, delivery, and payments with the aim of solving the last mile distribution challenge.
- SHYFT Power Solutions — SHYFT builds industrial-grade IoT and integrated software to connect and intelligently manage distributed energy resources (DERs) in markets that struggle with resiliency. SHYFT is pioneering the development of integrated decentralized power systems in emerging markets like Nigeria, leapfrogging over traditional central infrastructure and enablingDERs to scale and support existing but unreliable grids.
4DX Ventures is a Pan-Africa Focused Venture Capital Firm. Our mission is to connect people, ideas, and capital to create a vibrant African community.
Show more
Investment focus
- FinTech, Information Technology, Financial Services
- Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Egypt, United States, Kenya
Portfolio highlights
- MAKA — MAKA is a community commerce platform for fashion and beauty, enabling everyone to discover their style, feel represented.
- 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.
- Zoie Health — Zoie is a digital health firm for women that provides family planning, fertility, and maternity care services.
TotalEnergies Ventures is the venture capital arm of Total.As part of Total's commitment to a better energy future, TotalEnergies Ventures is focused on finding, funding and fostering high-potential start-ups which will contribute to creating a low carbon future.Current areas of interest include Renewables, Distributed Energy, NewMobility, Energy Access, Energy Storage, Bio-Plastics, Circular Economy, Carbon Capture and Hydrogen.
Show more
Investment focus
- Energy, Renewable Energy, Transportation
- Series B, Funding Round, Series C
- United States, France, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Autogrid — Building a Resilient and Sustainable Grid with Distributed Energy Resources. Enabling a smarter, cleaner, more distributed electric power grid.
- 45-8 ENERGY — 45-8 ENERGY is exploring eco-friendly helium for uses in many industries.
- Ampersand — Ampersand catalyzes and power mass-market electric mobility. By supplying the battery swap network and operating system the company makes sustainable mobility rapidly accessible and affordable for developing markets, to improve livelihoods and the environment. With over a million km already covered by e-motorcycles in Africa using our plug-and-playpowertrain and energy network.
Savannah Fund is a seed capital fund specializing in US$25,000-US$500,000 investments in early stage high growth technology (web and mobile) startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially focused on East Africa, the fund aims to bridge the early stage/angel and venture capital investment gap that currently exists in Africa. The Fund expects toachieve this objective by combining capital with mentor networks both in the region and from Silicon Valley via an accelerator program and a follow-on independent seed fund.The fund is managed by an experienced and technology savvy team that have founded companies or are actively involved in angel investing or having run successful accelerator programs in past but also understand the unique Subsaharan African environment. They are backed and supported by both local, regional and international networks of angels,venture capitalists whose expertise we can draw on to help startups succeed and scale to fully fledged regional or global companies.They believe in the potential for Africa to become a global technology innovator by creating sustainable for profit companies that create jobs and make an impact.
Show more
Investment focus
- E-Commerce, FinTech, Information Technology
- Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Kenya, United States, South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- Oze — OZÉ brings African small businesses into the digital era. It is an app that makes it easy for businesses to track sales, expenses, and customer information. The data is analyzed to provide tailored recommendations, reports, and business education. If the entrepreneur needs a little extra support, an OZÉ Coach is just a click away. As they are usingOZÉ to manage their business and learn how to run it better, we are learning about them. Using this data and machine learning, we can predict their credit risk and provide them with affordable capital from our banking partners. With over 20,000 registered users, OZÉ is the largest online community of SMEs in Ghana. The most exciting thing is that OZÉ works; 97% of businesses that have used OZE for at least 9 months are growing or profitable or both!
- Root — Launch digital and embedded insurance solutions with omni-channel distribution.
- Afropolitan — Afropolitan is building a Network State to unleash the maximum potential of Africans around the world. Are you interested? Join us with your email.
Investors by industry
Health Care
Biotech
Community
Marketplace
FinTech
Impact
Proptech
Media (entertainment)
EdTech
Consumer
Climate
Energy
Hardware
Gaming
Artificial intelligence
Sustainability
Agriculture (agtech)
Venture Capital
Restaurants
Publishing
Beauty
Oil and Gas
Web3
Video Games
Food and Beverage
Clean Energy
Real Estate
Infrastructure
Big Data
Organic Food
Photography
Fashion
Education
B2B
Renewable Energy
Payments
Financial Services
Sporting Goods
Finance
Retail
Medical
Email
Wellness
Social Media
Music
Franchise
Celebrity
Android
Internet
Legal
Recruiting
Platforms
Travel
Fitness
Mobile Advertising
Google
Cannabis
Biotechnology
Hospitality
eSports
Automotive
Crowdfunding
Wine And Spirits
Medical Device
Social
Construction
CleanTech
Local
Transportation
Mobile
Mobile Apps
Enterprise Software
InsurTech
Sports
Enterprise
Social Network
Manufacturing
Digital Media
Facebook
Art
Social Impact
LGBT
Cryptocurrency
Film
Life Science
Theatre
Non Profit
SaaS
Software
Blockchain
Investors by country
Canada
United Kingdom
Ireland
Germany
South Korea
Australia
United States
India
New Zealand
Oceania
Armenia
China
Europe
Indonesia
LATAM
Middle East
Spain
Asia
Japan
South Africa
Qatar
Vietnam
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Brazil
Africa
Czech Republic
Bahrain
Belize
Bermuda
Costa Rica
Belarus
Bulgaria
Denmark
Algeria
Georgia
Gibraltar
Cameroon
Chile
Finland
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Greece
Ethiopia
Ghana
Hungary
Croatia
Egypt
Belgium
Barbados
Ecuador
France
Hong Kong
Seychelles
Kuwait
Israel
Slovenia
Jersey
Kazakhstan
Nicaragua
Philippines
Italy
Russian Federation
Mali
Lithuania
Cambodia
Liechtenstein
Rwanda
Kenya
Serbia
Liberia
Lebanon
Uzbekistan
Togo
Mauritius
Morocco
Malaysia
Taiwan
Norway
Peru
Ukraine
Myanmar
Cayman Islands
Panama
Malta
Mexico
Sierra Leone
Turkey
Tunisia
Thailand
Nigeria
Tajikistan
Poland
Bahamas
Uganda
Azerbaijan
Iraq
Iceland
Namibia
Zimbabwe
Tanzania
United Arab Emirates
San Marino
Uruguay
Honduras
Venezuela
Zambia
Isle of Man
Bolivia
Senegal
Luxembourg
Puerto Rico
Portugal
Sweden
Pakistan
Albania
El Salvador
Argentina
Austria
Bangladesh
Grenada
Jordan
Romania
Colombia
Cyprus
Latvia
Oman
Switzerland
Guatemala
Marshall Islands
Investors in South Africa by industry
Crowdfunding
Transportation
Financial Services
Cryptocurrency
Finance
Big Data
Food and Beverage
B2B
Medical
Payments
Facebook
Travel
Medical Device
Platforms
Email
Media (entertainment)
Internet
Manufacturing
Mobile
Blockchain
Software
Automotive
Biotechnology
FinTech
InsurTech
Health Care
Consumer
EdTech
Biotech
Climate
Energy
Proptech
Sustainability
Marketplace
SaaS
Agriculture (agtech)
Hardware
Gaming
Retail
Education
Web3
Sports
Wellness
Fitness
Mobile Apps
Real Estate
Renewable Energy
Artificial intelligence
Enterprise
Community
Impact