Top 15 Food and Beverage Startup Investors in South Africa in April 2025
A list of 15 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Food and beverage startups based in South africa. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Food and beverage companies from South africa. We update this investor list every month.Top 15 Food and Beverage Startup Investors in South Africa in April 2025
Investor | Food and Beverage South Africa investments |
---|---|
Cult Food Science | 3 |
Sustainable Food Ventures | 2 |
Standard Chartered Bank | 2 |
Naspers Foundry | 1 |
Mylkcubator | 1 |
Kale United | 1 |
HAVAÍC | 1 |
Alethea Capital Management | 1 |
Tim Draper | 1 |
Anonymous Trust | 1 |
Vumela Fund | 1 |
Twynam Agricultural Group | 1 |
Michael Jordaan | 1 |
Khulisani Ventures | 1 |
AlphaCode Club | 1 |
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 — Cell-cultivated food solutions
- 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.
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.
Standard Chartered Bank offers personal and business banking services. Their solutions for companies include transaction banking and financial markets solutions. They also offer current accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and mortgage services.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, Internet, FinTech
- Debt Financing, Post-IPO Debt, Funding Round
- Singapore, India, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Verkor — Verkor is a battery cell manufacturer whose goal is to increase the production of low-carbon batteries to fulfill the growing demand for electric vehicles. The company focuses on the development of low-carbon batteries with a carbon footprint that is many times smaller than standard batteries. This reduces the logistics footprint, includingemissions, and provides businesses with batteries that are very inexpensive and use carbon-free electricity.
- Singtel — The Singtel Group, Asia's leading communications group provides a diverse range of services including fixed, mobile, data, internet, TV, infocomms technology (ICT) and digital solutions.
- Shriram Finance — Shriram Finance: Your choice for FD, FIP, General & Life Insurance, Personal, Business, and Vehicle Loans, along with easy BBPS and UPI payment services. India's leading NBFC for diverse financial needs.
Naspers Foundry is a global internet group and invests in technology-based companies. The company believes in the power of local backed by global scale and they look for opportunities to address big societal needs in markets where they see the greatest growth potential.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, Information Technology, Information Services
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- South Africa, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Planet42 — Having your own car has never been easier. Planet42 is a vehicle rental company offering rent-to-own car service for private clients.
- LifeCheq — Transforming financial services sales & distribution
- SweepSouth — Book a home cleaning online from your mobile, tablet or computer. SweepSouth connects you with a cleaner in minutes. Cleaners are experienced, reliable, efficient and insured.
Investment focus
Portfolio highlights
- De Novo Foodlabs — Producing non-animal dairy proteins using precision fermentation
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."
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.
Tim Draper is the Founding Partner of Draper Associates. He attended Harvard Business School.
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Investment focus
- Software, FinTech, Financial Services
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada
Portfolio highlights
- GALY — Saving Our Planet by Transitioning the World to Cellular Agriculture
- Buupass — BuuPass is Kenya's market leader for online bus booking. We enable travelers to reserve seats and make payments in a convenient and timely way. Try BuuPass today!
- Zest Protocol — Zest Protocol enables users to put their Bitcoin to work. Earn more BTC, or borrow against your BTC.
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.
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.
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Investment focus
- Education, Software, Primary Education
- Funding Round, Seed, Debt Financing
- South Africa, Brazil
Portfolio highlights
- Rentoza — We champion giving you access, affordability and flexibility to explore tech on your own terms
- 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.
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.
Michael Jordaan, the former banker now heads up a private investment company, Montegray Capital and lends a strategic-hand to various businesses, including as Chairman of Wines of South Africa (WoSA), Chairman of consumer data buro, Compuscan and as Director on the JSE. Michael also actively invests as a partner in AngelHub Ventures, a SouthAfrican based Venture Capital Fund.In 2014 he co-founded a coding apprenticeship program, ProjectcodeX, to grow highly skilled software developers to fuel the digital economy.
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Investment focus
- SaaS, Education, Financial Services
- Seed, Series A
- South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- VALR — Buy and sell bitcoin, ethereum & more | Pay anyone for free with VALR Pay
- Snapplify — Snapplify is at the forefront of edtech solutions in Africa, and specialises in enabling digital learning for individuals and institutions via the largest digital educational marketplace in Africa. As a global edtech company, Snapplify strives for radical inclusion to level the playing field and equip individuals across emerging markets with theworld-class tools they need to collaborate, innovate and thrive. Snapplify’s technology is used in other educational products to facilitate collaboration throughout the educational community.Snapplify for Education’s award-winning platform is already a top choice for institutions integrating digital education into their classrooms. From software to support, Snapplify provides institutions with everything they need to create a secure, collaborative e-learning environment for students. Snapplify’s robust 24-hour-access digital-library solution offers thousands of free ebooks and widely applicable, curriculum-approved educational content supplied by partner publishers from across the globe. Snapplify’s diversity of device integration allows schools to use its products on the devices that they already have access to, without having to invest in costly digital infrastructure upgrades. Snapplify’s solutions are industry celebrated and globally recognised for their innovation in technology.In order to achieve its educational goals, Snapplify has built strong relationships with diverse partners around the growth of its ebook, e-textbook, and device catalogue, and partnered with international publishers and other key stakeholders to meet the demand for widely relevant, curriculum-compliant digital educational content. As a socially minded company, Snapplify is committed to supporting others and creating sustainable change through collaboration and innovation. Snapplify empowers, inspires, and uplifts teachers via Teacha! (a media hub, resource marketplace, and careers portal for educators); is the digital content partner on a project that delivers technology and e-learning to public schools in South Africa’s Gauteng province, and runs impact programmes through the Snapplify Foundation.Snapplify originated in South Africa, focusing initially on the South African education and digital content industries. Since its establishment in 2012, the company has grown and expanded into new markets in Africa and the United States, with offices across South Africa, as well as in Nairobi, London, Amsterdam and New Jersey. Snapplify is backed by AngelHub Ventures, a venture capital company backed by former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan and the Harris family, as well as international investors. In 2019, Snapplify secured $2 million expansion capital from venture capital firm Knife Capital, and empowered African investment manager Hlayisani Capital’s Hlayisani Growth Fund.Snapplify for Education’s award-winning platform is already a top choice for institutions integrating digital education into their classrooms. From software to support, Snapplify provides institutions with everything they need to create a secure, collaborative e-learning environment for students. Through Snapplify’s e-learning and digital library solution, Engage, educators can share teacher-created, multimedia resource materials with students; administrators can manage the access and permissions for multiple student and staff accounts; schools can host their own 24-hour access digital content library (which comes with over 50 000 free resources including study guides, e-textbooks, past exam papers for multiple curricula, children’s books in African languages and more); and students and parents can purchase prescribed e-textbooks. Snapplify’s diversity of device integration allows schools to use its products on the devices that they already have access to, without having to invest in costly digital infrastructure upgrades. Snapplify’s solutions are industry celebrated and globally recognised for their innovation in technology.
- Real Time Wine — Share your wine moments. Real Time Wine is the social wine discovery app for everyone who enjoys wine, not just those who understand it. [In App Stores NOW!]
Khulisani Ventures is Mineworkers Investment Company’s early-stage investment vehicle, providing capital for businesses that are ready to aggressively expand and increase their market footprint.
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Investment focus
- Farming, Livestock, Farmers Market
- Funding Round
- South Africa
Portfolio highlights
- Livestock Wealth — Livestock Wealth is a crowdfarmingTM company that allows people to invest in livestock and earn from sale of the offspring.Their unique CrowdFarmingTM concept allows individuals to share the facilities of a commercial livestock farm while our experts look after their cows on a day to day basis.Cows have been a source of pride and a store ofwealth in Africa for centuries. The wealth in cows is based on something real – beef. The company enables anyone to be an organic beef farmer.
We are an African venture capital fund, for world-class African entrepreneurs run by seasoned African investors.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, FinTech, Automotive
- Grant, Funding Round, Debt Financing
- South Africa, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- BriefCo — BriefCo is South Africa's first and only legal cost consultancy leveraging technology. We utilize our own secure online platform to allow for the digital delivery and storage of all documents, thereby reducing the significant costs associated with printing, delivery, and file preparation.
- Vocalysd.ai — Vocalysd is a customer-centric, AI-powered insights tool. Vocalysd unlocks usable, easy-to-digest insights from your conversational data. These insights are key to optimising client interactions and enhancing your customers' experience.
- Sizanani — Collaboration is at the centre of everything we do. We partner with like-minded organisations to help our users find the best financial products in the market. We are the first WhatsApp-first stokvel solution because we believe that technology is fundamentally meant to create value, not apps.
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