Top 15 Community Startup Investors in South Africa (July 2026)

Portfolio highlights

• Trade Shield — Trade Shield's aim is to increase access to trade credit facilities for those companies that most need them and will benefit the most from them.
• Mia Healthcare —
• Breaze Delivery — Site will be available soon. Thank you for your patience!

Portfolio highlights

• Aku — Aku is a financial technology to drive financial inclusion on one mobile device. They provide payments and bring financial services to the doorstep. They support the new business owner in need of the right tools. They offer low-cost, accessible financial services that serve their customers. They radically democratized access to banking and digitalpayment channels.
• Cauridor — Cauridor is a Financial Services company.
• AlumUnite — AlumUnite is a purpose-built platform to connect all educated Africans to develop Africa's human capital through alumni groups. We crowd-resource education.

Portfolio highlights

• Yamify — Yamify is an AI platform where intelligent agents reliably run mission-critical business workflows in Africa. Founded by Silicon Valley engineers, our platform automates complex operations by integrating humans, systems, and infrastructure reliably, even under connectivity, latency, and compliance challenges. Starting with on-prem deployments,Yamify is evolving into a full AI automation infrastructure for African enterprises.
• Shopstar — A place for makers and creators to start, manage and grow successful online stores. Our built-in design, payment and shipping methods provide you with an all in one solution. Get started with a free 14-day trial.
• Kashat — The region's first nano financial service provider, offering small productive loans, and serving as the entry point to financial inclusion for the un- and underbanked population in Egypt.

Portfolio highlights

• FellowMe — FellowMe is a social media platform that allows users to meet new people with a search experience, segmented by interests and location.
• Exnus Protocol — Exnus Protocol is a next-generation decentralized ecosystem built on the Solana blockchain.
• UrbanFarmers — UrbanFarmers is a platform that connects city dwellers with local urban farms and community gardens.

Portfolio highlights

• Phyenti —
• Immobazyme —
• 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.

Portfolio highlights

• TUNL — Ship globally with ease. TUNL offers affordable, transparent international shipping built for South African brands. Up to 91% cheaper. No surprises.
• Marquee Group — Marquee Group is a sports management focused on Golf and train athletes to achieve goals.
• 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!

Portfolio highlights

• 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.
• WizzPass — WizzPass, a rapidly growing leader in the visitor management system and workplace management market is now FMS:Engage powered by FM:Systems.
• The Sun Exchange — We finance, install, and maintain the solar system. You simply pay for the power it generates and save from day one.

Portfolio highlights

• Autogrid — AutoGrid Systems organizes energy data and employs big data analytics to generate real-time predictions that create actionable data.The company’s suite of flexibility management applications allows utilities, electricity retailers, renewable energy project developers and energy service providers to deliver cheap, clean and reliable energy bymanaging networked distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time and at scale. AutoGrid applications utilize petabytes of smart meter, sensor and third-party data, along with powerful data science and high-performance computing algorithms, to monitor, predict, optimize and control the operations of millions of assets connected across global energy networks.Established at Stanford University in 2011, they have assembled a team of world-class software architects, electrical and computer engineers, data scientists and energy experts who apply cutting-edge analytics and in-depth energy data science to solve the world’s most critical energy problems.
• 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.

Portfolio highlights

• Personera — Talk to AI characters, challenge them in debates, and earn tokens. Socrates, Elon Musk, Shakespeare and 50+ more await you. Try free now.

Portfolio highlights

• Aya Data — Aya Data provides high-quality data annotation, AI training data, 3D annotations, machine learning solutions and also specialises in geospatial, NLP and computer vision projects.
• Kubik — Kubik makes low-carbon buildings from plastic waste. Bringing environmental dignity to how countries grow.
• 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.

Portfolio highlights

• Releaf Earth — 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.
• ZSystems — ZSystems is a transformative super app designed to redefine B2B trade.
• 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.

Portfolio highlights

• wamly — Wamly is the recruitment software, It has given us time back to focus on transformational work.
• Optique Optometrists — Optique Optometrists provides comprehensive eye care services, including eye tests, prescription glasses, and contact lenses. The company offers affordable eye care solutions and has multiple branches across South Africa. Customers can book appointments online and access a wide range of eyewear options. Optique Optometrists focuses on deliveringquality vision care and ensuring customer satisfaction through professional services and convenient booking options.
• Stone Three Venture Technology — We combine expert services with the power of machine learning to help our customers increase their productivity and safety.

Portfolio highlights

• Autochek — Welcome To Autochek Group's Homepage. Read About The Company's Vision And Mission. Select A Country And Apply For Car Loans
• CINETPAY — CinetPay is a mobile money payment hub that federates mobile money payment methods in Africa.
• Franc — Franc is the easiest way to save & invest. Our app doesn’t require any investment knowledge & our friendly risk quiz helps us understand how much investment risk is right for you. Users can start investing in less than 2 minutes. There is no minimum requirement & no paperwork. It is a seamless digital experience end-to-end. A usersimply chooses a goal, selects an investment strategy, verifies their identity & makes a deposit. Each user is recommended a personalised investment strategy for each investment goal, combining money market & index tracking ETFs. Our helpful calculators assist clients with their budgeting, retirement & targeted savings needs. We also provide free access to our online academy & fun financial literacy quizzes.We know saving is hard & investing can be scary, which is why we create savings groups & challenges so that users can encourage one another. We also run weekly competitions where users can stand a chance to win a cash prize that will boost their investments.

Portfolio highlights

• Personera — Talk to AI characters, challenge them in debates, and earn tokens. Socrates, Elon Musk, Shakespeare and 50+ more await you. Try free now.
• 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.

Portfolio highlights

• Glif — Interoperable tools for the Filecoin network
• Sweatcoin — Sweatcoin is a digital currency backed by physical movement. They verify and convert movement into currency. Users can then donate it to charity, transfer to other users or spend on products, services, and experiences provided by Sweatcoin vendors and user community.Sweatcoin tackles Present Bias by moving the future benefits of exercise into thehere and now- immediately converting movement into a digital currency and changing the perception of physical movement.
• Shield USDT — Shield is the first B2B cryptocurrency exchange designed for international businesses. Access a US-based virtual bank account to buy, sell, and transfer crypto.